








^■'.^ 




.0 v^^* -^' "- 






^ ' 



0" •, 






^ « • • , 





V.'=>'^ 







V<S' 




/\ '.^K-' **'"** '°^W.' /% -.JiBSS*.- > 



.v-^^ 









^^'O' 


















.'©• ♦i 











''°^''^'%o'> V'^^*"y'' V*^''%° 




^"^^ 




^P'^^ 







% '^^0^ o, 




















"^<i" 
.^'% 



'^0^ 



5°< 



<ft 







'■°' % ^ 







{5o<v 



etters trom a 
{aison Officer 

^erRinanS. grazier (lelke 




^ri^atefy Printed 

QdCQiiXIX 






Copyrighted 1919, by 
Ferdinand Frazier Jelke 



JUL -c: iiid 



eyj.A52928l 



TO MY MOTHER 

Whose love, complete understanding, 
sympathetic and devoted interest, more 
than all other factors combined, sustained 
and encouraged me through the trying and 
unfamiliar demands of my War-time so- 
journ "Over There," I lovingly dedicate 
this little volume of experiences. 

FERD. 
New York, 
Nineteen Hundred 
and Nineteen. 



FOREWORD 

It goes without saying that the letters 
here gathered were not written with any 
idea of being permanently preserved. They 
were merely a progressive recital, in a most 
informal and unstudied vein, of circum- 
stances and scenes with which the writer 
came in touch in the course of his work, 
first in the ranks of the Marine Corps, and 
afterward as a Lieutenant of Infantry in 
the Liaison Service, in France. 

But since the author's return from "Over 
There" — and in view of the gigantic scale 
of World War and the epochal character 
of the events and situations touched upon 
in the correspondence — members of his 
family have urged that the series of letters 
written from the scenes of his activities 
during I9i7-'i9, be made into a handy 
volume for the use of such friends as may 
find in them some personal appeal and 
interest. 

In preparing the letters for publication 
an attempt has been made to omit the 
more private and intimate details, while 
retaining such of the descriptive text as 
would aid the reader in gaining some last- 
ing impressions of the scenes and incidents 
which rushed by, like an animated pano- 



rama, in those days of frenzied endeavor 
and kaleidoscopic change, beginning shortly 
after America's entrance into the war 
and continuing until after the signing of 
the Armistice, and the return of the writer 
to America, early in 1919. 

Nothing has been added to the original 
text, except names of places and certain 
military data which could not be included 
at the time, though much has been elim- 
inated. It has been the purpose to pre- 
serve only so much detail as would be 
essential to a proper understanding of the 
situations described, and there is, of course, 
absolutely no attempt at literary style or 
impressive presentation. 

F. F. J. 
May, 

Nineteen Hundred 
and Nineteen. 




^CzduAai\cC ^. 




Sailer 
August 3, 191 7. at 

.noia-jH 'Jfli JiiOflniinirl; 

Attached to W 
November 4, 1917 

Attached to Chit f i. Jiricer 

February 12, 1918. 

Commissioned Sf-'V-ru? ; -tepir 
Infantry, March . 

Attached to staff <■ 
eral, Fifth French Ar 
Officer, April 27, 191 ^ 
served until after the 
tice, December 12. i 

Landed at Ncv 
March 6, 1919. 

Discharged froi; 
at Camp I) 




Frtncli Army Corps Staff brassard worn at all formal tun. 
3!ul when transacting formal official business 
throujihoiit rhe Rt-gion. 



MILITARY RECORD 
Ferdinand F. Jelke 

Enlisted, 5th Regiment (Base Battalion) 
U. S. Marine Corps, July 14, 1917, at Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Sailed for France on U. S. S. Henderson, 
August 3, 1917, acting as interpreter. 

Promoted August 17, 191 7, to Corporal, 
U. S. Marine Corps. 

Attached to War Risk Bureau (Paris), 
November 4, 1917. 

Attached to Chief Liaison Officer (Paris), 
February 12, 1918. 

Commissioned Second Lieutenant, U. S. 
Infantry, March 17, 1918. 

Attached to staff of Commanding Gen- 
eral, Fifth French Army Corps, as Liaison 
Officer, April 27, 19 18, in which capacity I 
served until after the signing of the armis- 
tice, December 12, 1918. 

Landed at New York, U. S. S. Sierra, 
March 6, 1919. 

Discharged from service March 8, 1919, 
at Camp Dix, N. J. 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




U. S. S. Henderson 

At Sea, August igth, IQ17. 

HIS is another tranquil August 
day, when nature seems to be at 
peace with the entire world. 
The trip has been uneventful, 
with the exception of hard work, drilling, 
holystoning the decks and long hours for the 
men — really a fine lot who enlisted for 
patriotic reasons last April. They are 
from small towns and farms in almost every 
state in the Union — one hundred and fifty 
from the University of Minnesota, all in 
one company. It was said at the Phila- 
delphia Navy Yard that this is the best 
bunch of recruits that has gone to France. 
For three days we have been in the War 
Zone, but no one is worried, and gives it 
little serious thought. Every known pre- 
caution is taken, dozens of men on the 
superstructure constantly are on watch with 
field glasses. The gun crews for the six- 
inch guns are on duty day and night, re- 
lieved every four hours. Fire and emer- 
gency drills are held daily, frequently during 
the night. 

As we came in sight of land, early this 
morning, the bugle sounded General Quar- 



15 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



At Sea, 

Aug. igthy 

1917. 



ters, and every one rushed to their stations 
at double-quick. The convoy spread out, 
commenced maneuvering and circling, and 
the guns started booming at objects be- 
tween the ships; aeroplanes circled overhead 
like birds, dropping high explosive bombs. 
We were in the midst of a flotilla of sub- 
marines, our first engagement with the 
enemy. As the cannons roared and belched, 
the ship quivered so violently fourteen 
windows in the officers' mess were broken. 
One submarine was sunk. 

Lots of love, from 

FERD. 



16 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



4 




p» 



Bordeaux^ France, Sept. 20th, 1917. 

HAVE an opportunity this morn- 
ing to drop you a few lines, good 
paper with American pen and 
ink, which is quite a treat. 
Until within the past week I have been 
living under such rough conditions, on 
shipboard and in camp, the life of an 
enlisted man, there has been little oppor- 
tunity to write, except to scratch a few 
lines home. 

Colonel Bearss has been put in com- 
mand of the largest receiving port in 
France where the greater part of the new 
National Army will be landed, and the 
work of preparing to handle them is most 
interesting. There is already a large re- 
ceiving camp at Souges and it is to be en- 
larged to accommodate forty thousand. 
There are to be over five hundred thousand 
men, two hundred and fifty thousand 
animals, and hundreds of thousands of tons 
of freight landed here.* There are to be 
miles of railroads, warehouses and docks 
built. 

We landed a month ago at St. Nazaire, 
where about one-fourth of the American 

*Estimated to be half of the proposed American Army. 



17 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Bordeaux, France, 

Sept. 20th, 

1917. 



Army is to be handled. About ten days 
ago Colonel Bearss, with a staff of six offi- 
cers, three interpreters (LeGendre, Auguste 
Ferrier of New Orleans, and myself) mo- 
tored down from St. Nazaire to take charge 
of Base Section No. 2. We have requisi- 
tioned a large four-story office building and 
there are to be, in all, about eighty officers* 
and two to three hundred clerks. 

It is the opportunity of our lives to wit- 
ness and be part of the advance of a great 
army. Our services as interpreters have 
really been valuable. This is most inter- 
esting work, as it brings us in contact with 
the highest staff officers. As you know, 
Colonel Bearss is a field man, and has a 
long fighting record in the tropics, including 
Santo Domingo and the Philippines. 

None of the American troops are to do 
any fighting before spring. They are to 
be sent to training camps behind the lines 
as fast as they arrive, and the work con- 
sists largely of bomb throwing, bayonet 
exercises, machine gun operation and ath- 
letics to harden them. The infantry fight- 
ing is all done with machine guns, bayonets 
and bombs. One hundred and eighty-seven 
troops of our Fifth Regiment were killed 
and wounded recently in their camps at 
the front by German aeroplane bombs. 

*There are now five times this number. 



18 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



The French rarely discuss the possibiHties 
of the termination of the war, as they have 
lost hope of it ever ending and just grimly 
keep on fighting. The press is silent on the 
subject. The United States is taking over 
a large part of France and is expected to be 
her savior. The general feeling among our 
officers is that the war is to last at least one 
or even two years longer. 

Our letters are censored by our own 
officers, and are again subject to examina- 
tion by the Base Censor at Paris. 

Affectionately, 

FERD. 



Bordeaux, France, 

Sept. 20th, 

1917. 



19 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Bordeaux^ Fra7ice, Oct. 26thy 1917. 

^AR makes one a fatalist in a 
short time, for they Have little 
control over their destinies, and 
are tossed about "as jetsam 
on the waves of time." 

The Antilles, one of the five ships in our 
convoy, was sunk on her second return voy- 
age to America. The Saxonia, another, has 
also been sunk on a return trip.* 

I have had several very interesting days 
this week, in spite of almost incessant rain. 
I was detailed to conduct the Paris New 
York Herald correspondent, Cleveland Cox, 
on a two days' tour of inspection of the 
camps and engineer works of this Base 
Section No. 2, and secured interviews for 
him with the various Colonels commanding 
Departments, and many others. 

The whole trip was most instructive and 
interesting. Cox had just returned from 
the front where our men are in training in 
the Vosges. This is a most poverty-stricken 
part of France, while at the same time the 
quietest, and the men are quartered in cow- 
sheds, pig-pens and peasant huts, and the 
mud and dirt is deep and the odors most 

*This was at a period when the submarine menace was at its 
worst. 



20 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



offensive. So near the lines they can't Hve 
in barracks or tents. 

I am astonished to read in the American 
press that the Germans are practically on 
their knees, begging peace. The fact is, 
the subject is rarely mentioned in the 
French papers, and then only vaguely. 
Cox said the middle classes want peace at 
any price, and if they had their choice 
would not fight for another year, even to 
secure victory with our help. 

He said recently, when some German 
prisoners were taken and their officers told 
that Americans were here, they laughed, 
thinking it a lie. When shown the Amer- 
icans, they evidenced the greatest concern, 
and said, ''Well, we have been deceived." 

Yesterday we took a wandering Ameri- 
can, wearing a soldier's uniform, who is to 
be court-martialed as a spy. He had ten 
thousand francs sewed up in the lining of 
his coat. 

It is fine to receive such letters and to 
know the folks at home appreciate us and 
give us a little blarney. It warms the 
cockles of the heart, for it is all so sordid 
over here. 

With lots of love to you all, from 

FERD. 



Bordeaux, France, 

Oct. 26th, 

1917. 



21 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Tours, France, Nov. ^d, iQiy. 

EFORE leaving Bordeaux, I had 
charge of the polls and held 
the New York State election. 
Well, the life of a marine is 
filled with excitement. Last night Hennen 
Le Gendre and I narrowly escaped being 
killed in an automobile accident. I had 
been ordered to Paris to help in organizing 
the War Risk Bureau. We did not "push 
off" from Bordeaux in the Packard until 
noon Saturday and were ordered to report 
in Paris Sunday, four hundred miles. We 
had no time to change the oil in the motor 
for the trip, and the car was heating and 
making poor time; so after lunch we stopped 
and washed out the motor with kerosene 
and put in fresh oil. 

Hennen was driving and we were trying 
to reach Tours, halfway, to spend the night. 
The motor ran smoothly like a watch, and 
we had just finished one hundred and twen- 
ty-five miles in three and one-half hours, 
through towns and all. 

It was already dark, and the headlights 
had dimmers, but the road was perfect. I 
had just looked at the speedometer and it 
registered forty-five miles. The next in- 
stant the road took a sudden turn under a 



22 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



railroad bridge; there was a terrific crash, 
and the car rolled over, apparently crushed 
and a total wreck. It had struck the 
rock curbing at the side of the country 
road and capsized, crushing top, fenders, 
running board, left front wheel, and wind- 
shield into a thousand pieces. It was a 
miracle that we were not killed, and the 
only thing that saved our lives was that 
the car was of such substantial construc- 
tion. A lighter one would have crumpled 
like cardboard and have rolled over and 
crushed us. The steel fenders which struck 
the soft, wet earth were completely crushed. 
The impact was terrific, but so sudden we 
hadn't time to see it coming. I was thrown 
over Hennen and lit on my feet and thought 
at first his legs were pinned under the car. 
Hennen walked to the next town and asked 
help, but everyone was in bed (at eight 
o'clock), and flatly refused. Finally three 
teamsters with their large, lumbering carts 
passed and helped lift the car. The left 
front wheel would still turn, and after 
refilling her with oil and gasoline (of which 
we had an extra supply in the tonneau) and 
water, all of which had run out, we started 
again for Tours. We limped in, in a badly 
crippled condition after one a. m. and found 
caressing beds with clean sheets. 



Tours, France, 
Nov. jd, 
1917. 



23 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Tours, France, 

Nov. 3d, 

1917. 



Upon remarking the unusual number of 
cripples hobbling about the streets on 
crutches, we were informed that a large 
amputation hospital is situated here. 

This is the first touch of la belle France 
in eleven weeks, and it is the first time the 
people in the streets have been friendly, or 
the hotel employees respectful and polite, 
or that we have slept in good beds. The 
Americans are not too cordially welcomed, 
as it is thought we will prolong the war 
without making any material difference in 
the result. 

Tours, you know, is in the heart of 
Touraine, the beautiful and far-famed Cha- 
teau district, one hundred and fifty miles 
southwest of Paris, so much visited by 
tourists. It is a refined and beautiful 
residential city, with fine buildings, miles of 
old shade trees, and beautiful perspectives. 

Your devoted son, 

FERD. 



*This condition changed in the summer of 1918. 



24 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Paris, France, Nov. i6th, igiy. 

US telephoned several days ago 
that there was a whole wagon- 
load of mail for me at Head- 
quarters, including your love 
letters, all of which I was delighted to re- 
ceive and am still in the process of digesting. 
We finished our motor trip from Tours 
without further mishap — arriving at Paris, 
after a 400-mile trip, Tuesday evening in a 
pouring rain and looking like two soldiers 
direct from the trenches, with our "packs." 
I am glad to say that the Ritz received 
us with open arms and the greatest courtesy 
in spite of our appearance, which was an 
unusual experience, after three months of 
incivility and condescension by the ignorant 
people of the Midi. 

We were flabbergasted to find Paris just 
as gay as ever, only more so, on the surface ; 
with the exception of the night life — all 
of the restaurants close promptly at 9:30 
and every one quietly goes home with no 
arguments about serving "just one more 
drink." The theaters are all open. I had 
expected to see a martial spirit with war- 
stained detachments of troops passing 
through the streets with trucks, cannons, and 
torn flags, drums and bugles. The stenog- 



25 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

Nov. i6th, 

1917. 



rapher says it was that way in the begin- 
ning, at the time of the battle of the Marne, 
and that it was awful when the Germans 
were so near Paris and the Government 
was moved to Bordeaux for two months. 
They could hear the roar of cannon. The 
papers, at that time, referred to the sal- 
vation of Paris at the Marne as a **miracle.** 

Everyone on the streets looks healthy, 
pleasant, gay and well dressed, not all in 
mourning as at Bordeaux. However, when 
one enters French homes, they find hearts 
torn with sorrow, mourning over their lost 
on€s. These people are really Spartans. 

In spite of the high price and scarcity of 
gasoline, the Government allows taxi-cabs 
a limited quantity, so this means of con- 
veyance is not extinct; except on rainy days 
and late at night when it is utterly impos- 
sible to get one. The rates seem little 
higher than usual. 

We dined at Henri's and had a devil of 
a time getting home afterwards, at ten 
o'clock, and finally succeeded in recruiting 
an old man with a horse-cab to drive us up 
to the Bois de Boulogne. 

There is so much to write about and my 
mind is in such a whirl, and I am always 
in such a hurry, I forget to say the principal 
things I started to write. It is so tedious 
and difficult dictating to French stenog- 



26 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



raphers as almost every word must be 
spelled, and it takes too much time to 
write long-hand. 

You all are hardly ever entirely off my 
mind, and my one ambition is to make you 
proud of me; our constant interest is "to 
please the folks at home." There is no 
one among ourselves we care about im- 
pressing. 

We are enjoying immensely our respite 
of luxury, if not of ease, and Gus and I 
are thinking of writing a book entitled 
"From the Clay Hills of Quantico* to the 
Paved Streets of Paris.'* 

Lovingly, 

FERD. 



*One of the three Marine Corps Training Camps is at Quantico, 
Virginia. 



Paris, France, 
Nov. i6th, 
1917- 



27 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Paris, France, Dec. jd, igiy. 

HAVE just had a totally new 
viewpoint on the prospects of 
peace in conversing with the 
Vicomtesse de Rancongne, who, 
you know, is my old friend Giselle Bunau- 
Varilla, daughter of the Panama engineer 
and owner of the "Matin," Philip Bunau- 
Varilla. She is a brilliant, patriotic young 
woman, thoroly posted on the war 
and French politics, and her views natur- 
ally reflect those of her father and the 
inner circle of the French Government. 
Instead of expressing regret at the turn of 
affairs in Russia and their making a separate 
move for peace, she showed satisfaction, 
saying that it would "break the ice," to use 
her own words, and the move she thought 
would be contagious. There is a deep and 
longing desire in the hearts of all fighting 
men on both sides for peace and for the 
carnage to stop. This is not limited to any 
set of men or women, but is universal among 
all nationalities in the trenches, who want 
to return to their homes and peaceful pur- 
suits. She says she knows on the highest 
authority that the Kaiser and the men 
around him are sincerely willing and want 
peace at any price; but they have in the 



28 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



past so thoroughly sowed the doctrine of 
Pan-Germanism and **Deutschland ueber 
Alles," and have so completely led the 
people to believe they were going to have 
a victorious peace, they cannot now con- 
vince them that Germany is facing a crush- 
ing defeat. With the German Army hold- 
ing so much foreign territory, the "Pan- 
Germanists" refuse to consent to "peace at 
any price." There is a great wave of the 
brotherhood -love -of- mankind passing 
through the armies of Europe, and she 
believes that all that is needed is the pres- 
ent move for peace in Russia to fan it into 
flame. There is a general feeling of the 
futility of continuing this awful carnage of 
human lives. Instead of condemning the 
Russians, she says they are showing great 
hardihood in making a move that all na- 
tions wish to make, but do not dare, for 
fear of not "saving their faces." 

This is to me an entirely new angle on 
the situation, and coming so frankly from 
this source illustrates what the Government 
and people are striving for, but have not 
yet been able to attain. 

Last Sunday, we called on the Vicom- 
tesse's father, in their magnificent big old 
house in the Avenue d'lena, and had a 
delightful visit. We felt instinctively that 
we were in the presence of one of the great 



Paris, France, 
Dec. 3d, 
1917. 



29 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

Dec. 3d, 

1917. 



men of France. The house was just the 
same as of old, but a Httle dingy and the 
walls in need of cleaning, showing the occu- 
pants had had little time or inclination for 
such things during the past three years. 
Colonel Bunau-Varilla, the great French 
engineer, was just home from the hospital 
where he had laid in a mangled condition for 
three months. One leg and part of his side 
were shot away by an exploding shrapnel 
shell. He was in high spirits and gay, be- 
cause Etienne, his son, who had been a 
prisoner since the first nine months of the 
war, was returning the next day. The boy, 
whom I had motored with and chummed 
with the entire summer of 191 2, at Dinard, 
had won the Croix de Guerre three times 
(two palms) in the first nine months of the 
war, before his capture. When captured 
he was leading, as flight commander, a flight 
of aeroplanes making a raid on a German 
camp. He was for five months in solitary 
confinement in a German prison, the first 
month of which he was not permitted to 
even work. After that he was allowed to 
sew "trench-backs" for ten hours per day. 
He was moved from camp to camp and 
suffered the most frightful starvation and 
hardships. The "Matin" has been very 
anti-German for twenty-five years past, 
and this was their means of revenge. They 



30 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



did likewise with the sons of other promi- 
nent Frenchmen as reprisals. At one time 
when the French were making raids on a 
German ammunition plant the Germans 
placed sixty of these young men in a house 
nearby and left a light burning in it each 
night to attract the bombing attacks. It 
was the only light in the neighborhood. 

Finally, in an almost dying condition, 
through the intercession of the King of 
Spain, he was sent to Switzerland. After 
six months the doctors there have per- 
mitted him to return home, with the under- 
standing with the French Government that 
he must return to Germany after the war 
to be tried by court martial for some trivial 
offense for which the sentence is ten years 
in prison. 

The Vicomtesse's young husband of less 
than a year was also captured in the be- 
ginning of the war, when a handful of one 
thousand French cavalry held Lille against 
ten thousand Germans for three days. This 
blocked their advance on Calais, and gave 
the French time to send up more troops to 
cut the Germans off from ever reaching 
Calais. 

Giselle, herself really only a girl of twenty- 
five, with two other young women organ- 
ized the **Appui des Beiges" (Help for 
Belgian Soldiers) at the beginning of the 



Paris, France, 
Dec. sd, 
1917. 



31 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

Dec. 3d, 

1917. 



war, and now have an institution which 
takes care of a German prison camp of over 
five thousand Belgian soldiers, sending to 
each, by post, a weekly package of food in- 
dividually addressed, and spends over eight 
thousand dollars per month, most of which 
is contributed by the French Government. 

Etienne's cousin Jean, who was such a 
good friend, whom Jack and I met crossing 
to China, is broken in health and has been 
sent back to civil life as a reform^, and is 
living in retirement with his wife and two 
children at St. Cloud. 

This letter as I read it sounds sad, but 
there is nothing unusual about it, simply 
an every-day account of one prominent 
French family torn by the war. Is there 
any wonder these people welcome the pros- 
pect of peace, the demand for which will 
some day sweep over Europe like an electric 
spark .? 

Devotedly, 

FERD. 



32 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Paris, France, Dec. 22nd, IQ17. 

HE time is flying by so rapidly 
and we are so extremely busy 
it is almost impossible to write, 
although I am writing you in 
mind every day. Occasionally when I 
leave the office and do have an oppor- 
tunity to dictate a few lines to a public 
stenographer, I am in too great a hurry 
to collect my thoughts. 

The spirit of military men is "to eat, 
drink and be gay for to-morrow we may 
die" and the result is that they all live as 
well as possible on meager means. Life in 
camp and in the trenches is so severe that 
every one lives as comfortably as possible 
when they get the opportunity. The re- 
sult is that Gus and I have taken a 
beautifully furnished apartment near the 
Bois de Boulogne, expecting to spend the 
winter here. It was comical to see us mov- 
ing in our worn uniforms and rough camp 
equipment with blanket rolls and sea-bags; 
we felt like a couple of tramps in an 
Aladdin's Dream. 

We frequently have officers up to dinner, 
our only diversion, as we never go to the 
theater. 



zz 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

Dec. 22nd, 

1917. 



While it is unknown to the average Amer- 
ican, the situation is looked upon by the 
French authorities as serious, as it is 
estimated that the number of men that we 
are figuring on sending over by Spring will 
not be enough to offset the German soldiers 
released on the Russian front — France was 
in a better position in 191 5 than at the 
present day, when Germany has since 
conquered Russia and Italy. 

Germany is preparing on a large scale 
to make air raids on Paris before Spring 
and it is expected that we will get a taste 
of war here. 

Love from your devoted son, 

FERD. 



34 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Parisy France, Dec. 26thy 1917. 

ELL, this is the day after Christ- 
mas, which was passed really 
pleasantly under the circum- 
stances. The festivities com- 
menced with dinner Christmas Eve at 
Harriet and Florence Burton's apartment 
and ended at midnight last night at ours. 
They gave a charming dinner and had a 
small tree. The guests included a Colonel 
Riley, Lisa Stillman, Baroness Maxwell de 
Wardener, Gus, myself and several others. 
We went over again for Christmas dinner 
when they had Colonel McCrae, former 
Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road, Mimi Scott, besides several more. 
In the afternoon we went for a long motor 
drive in the Bois, and in the evening the 
girls went down to the Soldiers' and Sailors' 
Club, where they assisted with giving out 
the presents. 

Am enclosing a clipping about the Secours 
Duryea which you see Florence Burton 
was Secretary of and one of the prime 
movers. She is a close friend of Col. and 
Mrs. House with whom she was constantly 
when last in Paris several weeks ago. I 
am also enclosing a clipping in regard to 



35 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

Dec. 26th, 

J917. 



"embalmed beef" from which we suffered 
when crossing the ocean. 

There is so Httle heat and the houses 
are so cold that we have to dress indoors 
as if we were out-of-doors. Coal is fifty 
dollars per ton and can only be secured in 
limited small quantities by the use of coal 
cards, as is also the case with wood, sugar, 
bread, gasoline, and milk. However, we 
don't buy or use any milk, leaving it for 
the sick and babies. We have gas in our 
kitchen, but only a limited amount is per- 
mitted to be used. By paying the price one 
can have plenty of everything good to eat, 
for the French certainly know how to 
cook. The one thing that a soldier thinks 
about is his stomach for the life makes 
him ravenously hungry and he rarely has 
enough.* 

Your devoted brother, 

FERD. 



*0f what he wants. 



36 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Paris, France, Jan. 2ist, iqi8. 

UST a few lines this eve, to let 
\ you know I am well and happy 
and working very hard, but too 
tired to write much. I never 
have an opportunity to dictate letters 
any more, as we are working in and around 
Paris, writing insurance for the soldiers and 
trying to get it all in by February 12th, the 
last day. We are working in the hospitals 
at present and it is all very interesting. I 
am directly under and working with Cap- 
tain Willard Mack of Cincinnati, who is 
charming. We have been all day at Dr. 
Blake's hospital. It is one of the best, and 
he is a kindly, elderly man with white hair, 
looking sixty-five, but they say fifty-five. 
He is considered one of the foremost 
surgeons of France to-day, especially on 
fractures and difficult grafting. He has the 
rank of Major, as all American Red Cross 
hospitals have been taken over by the 
Army. Preparations for American hospi- 
tals are being made all over France on a 
staggering scale. 

We had cold weather here from about 
December 15th to January 15th, and 
chilblains are frequent, but for the past 



37 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

Jan. 2ist, 

IQiS. 



week it has been warm and spring-like. 
Deaths from pneumonia have occurred by 
dozens daily. 

The following amusing copy of a letter 
giving an enlisted man's honest impressions 
upon reaching the front for the first time 
in winter, was received from a friend who 
later was awarded the Distinguished Serv- 
ice Cross, for bravery in action. 

"This is a hell of a hole — mud up to 
my ears — snow — slush — men sleeping in 
stables — cow sheds, pig sties — no oil for 
lights — no wood for fires. Hell itself let 
loose. We can hear the damn guns on the 
front all day and night — like distant thun- 
der. 

"Companies are now 250 men — every- 
body has a helmet, gas mask, etc., on ac- 
count of bombs — gas bombs, etc. 

"We expect to occupy the trenches in 
the ... in about threei weeks. I 
kiss you lovingly good-bye. 

"Fell in a mud-hole to-night and had 
to be dug out so am feeling in no cheerful 
state of mind. Enjoy reading Town Topics 
and Country Life. Don't believe any such 
country as America exists — Long Island 
and New York must be fables. 

"My address is . . . 

"Was very glad to see you and Gus in 
Paris. 



38 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



**This will be mailed by a guy who is 
going to Paris to-morrow morning. 

"Best to you and Gus/' 

While Channon's newspaper letter is 
cleverly and charmingly written, mothers 
and daughters are not flitting about Paris 
on the arms of their sons and brothers. He 
has let his imagination run away with him 
in order to write an airy and amusing 
account of something that is quite the 
opposite. 

Affectionately, 

FERD. 



Paris, France, 
Jan. 2 1 St, 
1918. 



39 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Paris, France, Feb. I2th, iqi8. 

\0\5 will remember I wrote you 
two months ago of the contem- 
plated air raids on Paris by the 
Germans with air-planes of fan- 
tastic size. Last week they made the first 
of the long privately expected attacks. The 
sirens made a devil of a row at 1 1 130 — like 
on an old-fashioned New Year's Eve at home. 
I laid on my bed and waited for the explo- 
sions as the sirens passed the house on fast 
motors to awake people to seek shelter in 
cellars. Finally I got up and went on the 
balcony. The hand of death and destruction 
hovered over the sleeping city, nobody know- 
ing where it would strike nor where the 
bombs would fall. One by one the few re- 
maining lights in the neighboring houses dis- 
appeared and all was shrouded in darkness 
with the exception of a few stars and a pale 
moon. The deep intonations of falling bombs 
and cannons were intermingled. I counted 
fifty explosions in a space of about twenty 
minutes. I dropped to sleep again at mid- 
night and at 2:30 was awakened by bre- 
loques and bugles — indicating ''all's quiet." 
One bomb dropped around the corner from 
Dr. Blake's hospital, which is located about 
a block from our apartment. Another 



40 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



destroyed the upper stories and blew out 
the front of a heavy stone building nearby, 
in the Avenue des Grandes Armees. 

A French air-plane was brought down on 
the Place de la Concorde, the aviator hav- 
ing been shot through the head and, the 
mechanician attempting to land, the ma- 
chine caught on one of the lamp-posts in 
the dark and he was severely injured. 
Another bomb fell within a block and a 
half of our office, at the Metro Station 
Quatre Septembre. All the windows 
within a block were blown out, and within 
the immediate vicinity the window sashes 
were empty of glass. At least a dozen 
bombs did serious damage in various parts 
of the city. The streets in the Latin 
Quarter were covered with blood and 
strewn with dead. 

You will see from this description that it 
was really a serious attack, and it is just a 
matter of luck whether a bomb falls on the 
house where one is living. Our apartment 
is on the sixth, or top floor. Protecting walls 
are being rapidly built around the monu- 
ments on the Place de la Concorde, the 
Opera, the Arc de Triomphe, and Place 
Vendome. 

I have not had an opportunity to write 
you in detail regarding the Russian Revo- 
lution which, I was informed some time ago 



Paris, France, 
Feb. I2lk, 
1918. 



41 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

Feb. I2th, 

1918. 



by the Vicomtesse de Rancongne, is ex- 
tremely serious — far more so than the 
French Revolution — on a larger scale, as it 
involves the whole country, which is in 
chaos and ruled by the mob. There were 
really leaders of ability in the French Revo- 
lution and most executions were by trials 
which were conducted in a comparatively 
orderly manner. However, such is not the 
case in Russia, for twenty thousand have 
been murdered in Petrograd* and Moscow 
alone. There the banks have been looted 
and the neighbors take turns at standing 
guard all night over their homes. At no 
time during the French Revolution was 
money stolen from the banks. 

The Vicomtesse has a cousin married to a 
Russian. They are refugees, financially 
ruined, and cannot go back. This is only 
one case of many thousands. Representa- 
tives of the Kerensky Government are 
stranded in Paris without sufficient means 
to live and with no way of receiving money 
from Russia, particularly as their proper- 
ties have been looted by the mobs. The 
Revolution, under Kerensky, was orderly 
and well conducted; however, he did not 
have a sufficiently strong hand, refusing to 

*Conditions are now indescribably worse; seventy-five percent 
of the population of Petrograd has disappeared during the past 
five years, and from fifty to a hundred thousand per month 
have died of cold and starvation during the present winter. 



42 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



spill human blood. The death penalty for 
soldiers deserting from the army was with- 
drawn, with the result that thousands de- 
serted, returning to their homes. 

It was fascinating to hear the inside 
story of the beginning of the Revolution 
from a high British ordnance officer. Ac- 
cording to him it was deliberately precipi- 
tated by the British Government in order 
to dethrone the Czar and prevent him from 
concluding a separate peace,* as he was 
totally under the influence of his wife, the 
Czarina, and the pro-German court party 
as headed by her. 

A leading English Duke was sent on a 
secret mission to see the Czar and instead 
of receiving the usual courtesy he was re- 
ceived by the Czar in an audience of three- 
quarters of an hour standing. After this, 
he at once proceeded to the British Em- 
bassy, giving the signal for the Revolution 
to begin, which the British Government 
financially backed through leaders of the 
Douma, including Kerensky. 

The description of the Russian members 
of the Peace Conference at Brest-Litovsk 
is fantastic. It consisted of a young work- 
ingman of twenty-one years, of no experi- 
ence or education; one young soldier and 
one old "spiritual" or fortune-teller, beside 

*This has since been authenticated from a more rehable source. 



Paris, France, 
Feb. I2ih, 
IQ18. 



43 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

Feb. I2th, 

1918. 



a fourth of the same ignorant class. Ger- 
many, on the other hand, was repre- 
sented by the best of her brains and diplo- 
mats, including generals and princes. The 
Russians in the negotiations refused to dis- 
cuss at length, but stubbornly said what 
they would do and what they would not do 
and could not be shaken from these deci- 
sions. 

We have had a vivid description of trench 
life by Gus' cousin, Tony Lelong, a former 
social leader of New Orleans, who enlisted 
as a "simple" soldier in the French Army a 
year and a half ago, and now is a Major in 
the American Army. He has given us some 
remarkable descriptions of attacks on the 
enemy trenches, he having gone *'over the 
top" several times with the French. Half of 
his teeth are gone from being gassed. When 
I inquired if their attacks had always been 
successful he said, "Of course, otherwise 
I would not be here." They occasionally 
caught the Germans unawares in their 
underground dug-outs and squirted liquid 
fire on them, burning them alive like rats 
in a hole. 

In describing the almost abject conditions 
in which men are reduced in the trenches 
to living like animals, he said that the soup 
would have to be brought up from several 
miles in the rear; and one day, when it 



44 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



was his turn to go to fetch it and the 
shelhng was continuous, he offered to pay 
a French soldier to go, but then realized he 
was asking the man to risk his life in his 
place and so changed his mind and went 
himself. He said the shells were bursting 
around him, and when one burst in front, 
he jumped back, and when one burst behind 
him he sprang forward, and then he stood 
still, not knowing whether to go forward 
or back, fast or slow. Then he remembered 
that the boys were waiting for their soup, 
so decided to run. When he arrived they 
would reach in with their dirty hands, 
lifting lumps of dirt out, grunting exclama- 
tions of satisfaction and joy over how fine 
the soup was. 

It is a great surprise to find the Belgians, 
so lauded and regarded as heroes, are now 
generally disliked. It is said they have 
lagged and shirked their duty, and are 
resting on the laurels of their first magnifi- 
cent stand in holding back the Germans. 
There are large numbers of Belgian refu- 
gees here who at one time refused to work. 

My friend Baron* de Wardener, in the 
coal business, had a number of boat-loads 
of coal in the Seine, which he was unable to 
unload owing to the shortage of labor, and 
the demurrage was costing a small fortune 

*Captain. 



Paris, France, 
Feb. I2th, 
1918. 



45 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

Feb. 1 2th, 

1918. 



daily. There were over one thousand 
Belgian refugees at the St. Lazare railway 
station and De Wardener went down to 
where they were, and standing on a barrel 
offered the large wages of fifteen francs a 
day, but was unable to secure a single man 
willing to work. They were all fed free by 
the French Government. 

This is simply a passing phase illustrating 
how rapidly a people can fall from a posi- 
tion of idolatry to one of disdain, and how 
fickle is human appreciation. 

With much love to you all, from your 
most devoted and affectionate son, 

FERD. 



46 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Paris, France, Feb. 22nd, igi8. 

OTHER'S charming letter, with 
enclosures of January 28th, was 
received February 17th, also a 
long personal letter from Rev- 
erend John Timothy Stone. 

Another enormous box of candy was 
received Saturday just in time for the 
dinner-dance Gus and I were giving. That 
is, Katherine Force and I each gave small 
dinners, afterwards going to her apartment 
to dance as there are hardwood floors and 
enormous rooms. Gus and I made all 
the arrangements, invited the guests and 
provided the music and punch. Harvey 
Ladew,who is a First Lieut, of Ordnance,* 
was with us. There were ten couples and 
needless to say the party was a great suc- 
cess as entertainments are scarce and much 
appreciated. There is some entertaining, 
however, on a small scale, particularly for 
British officers returning from the front. The 
men who are still living and fighting want 
gaiety and do not care to be greeted with 
long, sad faces when they return on a few 
days' "permission." For this reason restau- 
rants are well patronized and private dining- 
rooms must be always engaged in advance. 

*Later in the Liaison Service. 



47 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

Feb. 22nd, 

191S. 



I have been too busy to write in de- 
tail regarding the interesting work of the 
last few weeks with the War Risk Bureau 
while making our final drive before the 
twelfth of this month. Captain Willard 
Mack, a Lieutenant, and I covered all the 
troops in and around Paris, making ad- 
dresses when possible. I visited a num- 
ber of detachments alone, addressing them 
myself. 

The camouflage studio was particularly 
interesting, with curtains and screens like 
those used on an enormous stage. The 
Germans are said to have perfected camou- 
flaging to such an extent that entire army 
corps pass through villages near the Italian 
front without being seen by the Allied 
aviators. 

We visited the Supreme War Council, 
held in the magnificent Palace Hotel at 
Versailles, to write the insurance of the 
American officers. It was extremely inter- 
esting and the opportunity of a lifetime to 
witness such a momentous event. Sentries 
stopped casual people in the quiet streets 
within two blocks of the building. We saw 
the conference, which was quiet and digni- 
fied, in session in the large salon,* through 
glass doors. There were about twenty dis- 

*Where the ceremonial of handing the treaty to the Germans 
later took place. 



48 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



tinguished men seated around a long table, 
including Lloyd George, Clemenceau, Gen- 
erals Pershing, Bliss, Foch, and Petain and 
the British General Robertson. The well- 
known French crayon artist, Lucien Jonas, 
was making a book of charcoal sketches for 
the War Museum at the Invalides to be 
preserved for posterity. He sketched us as 
types of Americans, and then had us auto- 
graph them. There were no visitors, we 
being the only ones present besides the 
attendants. Captain Mack secured the 
autographs of Lloyd George, Foch, Petain 
and Clemenceau as they were leaving 
the council room. 

Afterwards we all had luncheon in the 
same dining-room at the Hotel des Reser- 
voirs.* It was a glorious springlike day 
and the little children played in the palace 
grounds with their nurses, oblivious of the 
fact that the fate of nations and perhaps 
the destinies of the civilized world would 
depend upon the decisions of this little 
group of men. Life was going on as usual 
at peaceful Versailles as if nobody were 
aware that such a momentous history-mak- 
ing conference was in session in their midst. 

My work under Major H.H.Harjes,Chief 
Liaison Officer, is going to be extremely 

*Now occupied by the German Envoys to the Peace Con- 
ference. 



49 



Paris, France, 
Feb. 22nd, 
1918. 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

Feb. 22nd, 

igi8. 



interesting. He is a refined and delightful 
American of perhaps forty-five, who has 
lived in Paris all of his life. He is immacu- 
lately groomed, a fine type of modern 
banker, extremely courteous and never 
orders, but with a pleasant smile says, 
"Will you please do so and so?" It is an 
inspiration to work for a man with such a 
magnetic personality, as it was likewise for 
Major Willard D. Straight (a Yale gradu- 
ate, formerly Consul General to China, who 
negotiated the Chinese Loan for the Syndi- 
cate of American Bankers headed by J. P. 
Morgan; also Vice-President of the Inter- 
national Corporation). He gave a farewell 
dinner at the Hotel Crillon for all the 
officers and men of the War Risk Bureau 
before leaving for the Officers' Staff School. 
Thirty officers and forty-five men sat down 
to dinner in adjoining banquet-rooms, and 
afterwards the folding doors were thrown 
open and the officers came in. There were 
after-dinner speeches and recitations by 
several of the men, and Major Straight made 
a farewell address praising both officers and 
men in the highest terms. He was pre- 
sented with the most touching resolutions 
of appreciation from his men expressing 
their gratitude for his kindness, generosity 
and wholeheartedness and splendid leader- 
ship. 



50 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Major Straight has accompHshed a big 
work with his small force, and successfully 
"put the job over," within the time limit. 
We have covered every American soldier in 
every part of France and given him his 
chance to take insurance. This Insurance 
Act, which includes both insurance and 
compensation, the modern word for pen- 
sion, is the biggest and most generous legis- 
lation of the kind ever passed by any 
government in the history of the world. 
Affectionately, 

FERD. 



Paris, France, 
Feb. 22nd, 
IQ17. 



51 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Paris, France, March iS^h, IQ18. 

jE HAVE indulged in our second 
air-raid of the present series. 
The other evening as I sat read- 
ing and musing over loving let- 
ters which had been carefully treasured, 
and was dreaming of America and France, 
and incidentally enjoying the Chicago Trib- 
une, the shrill sirens, the warning of ap- 
proaching death and destruction, passed 
the house, on fast fire department motors. 

The great majority of fatalities do not 
occur in houses struck by bombs, because 
the number of direct hits is comparatively 
few, but from the heavy concussions and 
flying debris hurled several hundred yards 
in all directions by force of the explosions. 

The bombing commenced early, at nine 
o'clock, and deep mingled intonations of 
bombs and cannon barrage fire continued 
almost incessantly for an hour, and inter- 
mittently for three hours, before the thirty 
Boche planes had left and the "all's quiet" 
was sounded, and people returned from the 
cellars to their beds. 

The barrage is maintained to keep the 
avions out of Paris. When they have 
entered the city they cannot be fired at 
with shrapnel for fear of killing people. 



52 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



The German planes usually reach Paris 
about eleven o'clock, as they must cross 
the lines after dark and it takes an hour 
or so to reach here. 

Paris is quite different in the evenings 
from what it was a month ago, for the 
police are strict about prohibiting light 
showing from windows, and the streets are 
in almost total darkness. The few remain- 
ing dim street gas-lamps have dull blue 
globes and are well shaded from above. 
The weird blue-green light is diffused more 
than white, and scarcely dispels total dark- 
ness. It evidently makes a target more 
difficult to locate from the sky. Street cars 
and metro, which come to the surface to 
cross the Seine, are similarly dimly lighted. 
One goes stumbling about in the dark, as 
in the days of Dickens in London. 

Many buildings have posters marked 
**Abri — loo persons," or whatever the num- 
ber may be, meaning their cellars have been 
chosen and prepared for shelter by the 
Government, on account of unusually strong 
construction. Some of the deeper m6tro 
stations, such as at the Place de I'Opera and 
Place de la Concorde, have small electric 
signs, "Refuge," and the public is permitted 
to crowd in free of charge. The metro 
trains are stopped during the raids, which 
causes consternation among parents wish- 



Paris, France, 
March 15th, 
1918. 



53 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

March 15th, 

1918. 



ing to get home from the theaters to put 
their children in a place of safety. The 
French are un-nerved but take the raids 
good-naturedly; however, there is consider- 
able openly expressed indignation among 
American officers, who are not accustomed 
to this indiscriminate slaughter of innocents. 

The protecting of famous historical monu- 
ments and statues and architectural treas- 
ures is progressing deliberately, even slowly, 
on account of lack of labor, but most 
thoroly, as if preparing for a long sum- 
mer siege. Heavy frame-work is built 
around whatever is to be protected, and 
frequently a heavy stone wall ten or fifteen 
feet high, on top of which sacks of earth 
to a thickness of four or five feet are care- 
fully piled. The fine examples of sculptured 
art on the fagades of buildings, churches 
and monuments are what is most carefully 
protected. 

Listening to the buzz of enemy motors 
and waiting for an air raid to pass is like 
sitting indoors during a severe spring 
electrical storm, waiting for the lightning 
to strike. However, it is rather more 
serious. It makes one stop and ponder and 
want to make a hasty peace with his Creator. 
Nothing has a more sobering and purifying 
influence than the proximity of violent 
death. We experienced the same sensa- 



54 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



tions during our engagement with sub- 
marines when crossing on the Henderson. 
It makes one reaUze how futile our little 
lives are, how cheap human endeavor is, 
and how easily we may be wafted into 
eternity. 

To speak of something more pleasant, I 
had dinner the other evening at the Ritz 
with Elsie Janis and several men, all officers, 
for that is all the men there are now. 

My work with Major Harjes is progress- 
ing splendidly and my French is getting 
well limbered. With lots of love to you all, 

Most affectionately your devoted son, 

FERD. 



Paris, France, 
March 15th, 
1918. 



55 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Paris, France, April nth, iqi8. 

Jour recent large envelopes con- 
taining letters of February 2nd, 
1 6th and 21st, with interesting 
enclosures, also letters of Febru- 
ary 5th, January i8th, January 28th, etc., 
have all been received and most heartily 
appreciated. I am receiving so many long, 
loving letters from you and some of my 
friends it is almost impossible to keep track 
of them and to reply. There are so many 
things I want to write about I hardly know 
how to begin. 

In the first place, I was delighted to 
know that Jack had been commissioned as 
Ensign so promptly. I cabled you recently: 
"Commissioned Second Lieutenant Infan- 
try. Congratulations to Jack. Love. Lieu- 
tenant Jelke." After waiting all these 
tedious months, and many times almost 
despairing of success, my commission finally 
arrived most unexpectedly. Word was re- 
ceived at noon and two hours later I took 
the oath of office. Gus Ferrier was sworn 
in two days before and has been like a 
delighted child. 

I am to be stationed in Paris, and 
privileged to wear spurs, although an 
infantry officer — staff officers are supposed 



56 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



to be mounted, but have automobiles 
nowadays — and am to go on special mis- 
sions requiring the services of a Haison 
officer any place in France. Had I been 
allowed to choose exactly what I would 
prefer to do, of all things this is the best. 
You understand that this is administrative 
liaison work between the American and 
French military authorities, requiring the 
services of "diplomats," and every officer 
on the staff is chosen for his peculiar quali- 
fications for this work.* 

I made two interesting trips lately as 
interpreter with a Captain Ferdinand Bar- 
telme, formerly in the lumber business, 
and who for some years lived in Chicago. 
One trip was near Chateau-Thierry to in- 
spect a French military plant for making 
excelsior used as bedding for soldiers, 
and another was in a Fiat limousine, over 
two hundred and fifty miles, near Havre, 
to visit a civilian plant of the same kind. 
I secured full technical and practical details 
for the manufacture of excelsior, and com- 
plete blue-print plans for the construction 

*"Liaison" means joining, connection, ligature, or slur (as in 
music, or pronunciation of two French words). 

Liaison Service in the French Army includes all Signal 
Corps work. Agent-de-liaison means a runner between two 
field units. 

In the American Army the term "Liaison Service" applies 
to our special service attaching American officers to French 
Army and Army Corps Staffs and various Departments of the 
Ministry of War in a purely diplomatic capacity. 



57 



Paris, France, 
April nth, 
1918. 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

April nth, 

1918. 



of excelsior plants which they are con- 
sidering placing behind the American 
front. 

One thing I was most impressed by in the 
various towns was the plentifulness of food, 
and we gourmandized, thinking that per- 
haps each good meal would be the last. 
The whole idea of the French stinting or 
depriving themselves is more or less of a 
joke, as it is contrary to their natures. 
Don't misunderstand me; I mean they are 
easy-going, but at the same time frugal. 
Food is plentiful, of course at prices higher 
than usual, which is hard on the poor. To 
be sure, sugar is scarce, each person limited 
to one pound per month, and butter is no 
longer served in restaurants, as it is for- 
bidden by law. It is a dollar a pound for 
fresh unsalted. These are the only articles 
in which there appears to be a great 
shortage. The consumption of bread was 
restricted by the use of bread cards the 
first of April, but this is becoming lax. 

The headquarters of the Transportation 
of the A. E. F., under Brig. General Wallace 
Atterbury, former Vice-President of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad, where Gus is at- 
tached, has moved to Tours, and we re- 
cently arranged several small farewell din- 
ners in their honor and also to celebrate 
receiving our commissions. 



58 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Lieut.-Colonel* Charles G. Dawes, for- 
mer president of the Central Trust Company 
of IlUnois, whom I occasionally see, is also 
doing some exceptional work as head of the 
A. E. F. Purchasing Board. 

With much love to you all, affectionately, 
your devoted son, 

FERD. 



*Now Brigadier General. 



Paris, France, 
April nth, 
191S. 



59 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Paris, France, April 15th, igi8. 

HE first days of the Big Bertha, 
no one knew what it was. As 
I was on my way to my office, 
and stopped at the boot-makers, 
the iron shutters were closed; some one 
volunteered, "You can enter through the 
rear door in the court." I went in and 
found the proprietor serving a customer 
with the electric lights burning. He said 
"Have you not heard the *alert.?'" I re- 
plied that it was ridiculous, the German 
planes were not coming in bright daylight. 
Upon returning to my taxi, the taxi driver 
refused to go further, and I argued with him, 
saying the Bodies will not arrive before 
half an hour after the "alert." 

The streets were thronged with buzzing 
shop people and working girls, looking into, 
the sky, who had quit work and were 
swarming as on a holiday. I continued to 
my office, and thought little further of the 
matter. At noon, there were no taxis to 
be had. The metro had stopped and the 
few remaining running taxis were each 
loaded with eight or ten people. Finally, 
upon reaching the Place de I'Opera, the 
streets were filled with people all of whom 



60 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



were to discontinue work for several days 
to come. 

The next morning our maid, who had 
spent most of the night in the cellar, 
talked about the German cannon, and said, 
**Why, it is written in the papers." I 
replied, "Don't be foolish, that is impossible, 
the Germans are sixty miles away." 

For several days every one speculated 
and finally concluded that spies had seques- 
tered an air-compressed cannon in a house 
in the suburbs which was shot through 
the skylight. This theory was quite gen- 
erally accepted, and it was fully a week 
before it became known from whence came 
the shells that were dropping regularly 
every twenty minutes. 

The second day, as I was looking out of 
the fifth story office window, I saw a large 
sugar factory, on the left bank of the Seine, 
struck and go up in a cloud of smoke and 
dust. 

Devotedly, 

FERD. 



Paris, France, 
April 15th, 
1918. 



61 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Parisy France, April i6th, igi8. 

AST night I had the pleasure of 
being the guest of honor at a 
briUiant dinner for twelve given 
by the Due* and Duchess de 
Montmorency at their home, virtually a 
palace, in the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, 
Lieutenant Harold Crandall, who is living 
with me, since Gus left Paris, and I being 
the only American officers present. The 
Princess Lucien Murat,** perhaps the most 
socially prominent woman in Paris, and one 
of the most brilliant, was on the host's right, 
while I was seated on the hostess' right. 
On my other side was Mme. Vesnitch, the 
wife of the Servian Minister,*** the sister of 
the Duchess. They said it is good luck 
to sit at dinner between two sisters. There 
was also the daughter of Mme. Vesnitch, a 
charming girl. 

Dinner was served by four butlers (re- 
formes), and the house is not surpassed by 
any in New York or Paris. The paintings 
had been removed from their frames in the 
art-gallery and put in the cellar on account 
of the danger of bombs. 

*Captain. 

**Whose home was occupied by President Wilson during his 
first trip to Paris. 

***Dr. M. Vesnitch is the Servian Delegate to the Peace Con- 
ference. 



62 



I 



I 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



The Princess Murat, who does not look 
her position (or rather does), is extremely 
plain and appears more like a litterateure, 
which she is, than a society woman. She 
has written a book on ''Rasputin," part of 
which appeared in the ''Century" last year, 
and is now writing one on George Washing- 
ton and Lafayette, for children, which she 
is illustrating herself. Her conversation 
and ideas are most original and interesting. 
Her husband's mother was a Russian from 
the Caucasus, and the Princess has been to 
Russia no less than eight or ten times, hav- 
ing traveled extensively throughout Russia. 
In fact, the Prince is now living on their 
estates in the Caucasus, and she returned to 
France two years ago to place her young 
son in the French Army as a common 
soldier. This she did against the wishes of 
her relatives, because he is not strong, and 
on account of his birth he could have had 
a commission in the Russian Army. In 
this way he could have avoided being sub- 
jected to the hardships of a "simple soldier" 
in a Republican Army. However, she said, 
"I am going to take my son back to die on 
the fields of France." All of her son's Rus- 
sian boy officer friends have since been put 
to death by the "people" in the Caucasus. 

The more the complicated conditions of 
this vast empire are disclosed, the more they 



Paris, France, 
April i6th, 
IQ18. 



63 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

April i6th, 

1918. 



become mystifying, and the more one 
realizes his ignorance concerning this hidden 
country, so rich in latent resources, which 
are the greatest in the world. The revolu- 
tion itself cannot be attributed to any one 
cause. It was simply like something that 
is ripe. The Czar, who had been accus- 
tomed to absolute power — a thing she says 
we can scarcely comprehend — and whose 
father and grandfather before him had 
known nothing else, might have prevented 
it by appointing a minister responsible to 
the people, but this is doubtful. As to his 
signing a separate peace, his mother assured 
the Princess, shortly before, that her son 
would never do that, for, as she said, "Mon 
fils a donne sa parole d'honneur." 

When the French and English missions 
came to America last March, a year ago, 
and admitted the serious conditions, many 
thought we had been duped in previously 
being led to believe Germany was about to 
collapse; however, such was really the case, 
for if Russia had held out three or four 
months longer, Germany would then have 
received the death thrust. Most Americans 
have only a vague conception of the situa- 
tion, owing to their lack of knowledge of 
the geography of the country, its resources 
and the facts. Many French know little 
more, and I haven't talked to any one who 



64 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



has so comprehensive a grasp or who has 
spoken so frankly as the Princess, except 
possibly the Vicomtesse de Rancongne. She 
said she would not have admitted it herself 
a week ago, and it wouldn't do to tell the 
people the whole truth now, but we are 
passing through the crisis and gravest 
period of the war. 

Unfortunately, the Allies have never 
pulled simultaneously and in full unison, 
owing to the difference in language and the 
lack of a supreme commander. They have 
not been in tune, so to speak. The Ger- 
mans and Austrians have had a great 
advantage in this respect. The Kaiser said 
to his brother-in-law, the King of Greece, 
several days before the battle, that he was 
going to win on account of the Allies not 
having a Supreme Command. Marechal 
Foch was put in supreme command only on 
the first day of the battle. Think of it! 
Even our children in reading history will 
think we were mad to make so belated a 
change in organization. But if it had not 
been made, the battle would have been 
lost ; it was all that saved the Allies from a 
crushing defeat — so say the French. Cle- 
menceau brought his fist down on the table 
two days before the battle started and 
said to Lloyd George, "If j^ou don't 
put Foch in command, I will sign peace 



Paris, France, 
April i6th, 
1918. 



65 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

April i6th, 

1918. 



tomorrow." It was the pressure of the 
Americans that brought this about. The 
American General Staff and Pershing 
strongly endorsed one command months 
ago, which he stated at the time in conver- 
sation with the Princess. 

Very devotedly and affectionately, your 
son, 

FERD. 



66 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



\r' 


1 



Paris, France, April 26th, IQ18. 

HE average American officer 
knows very little of the psychol- 
ogy and the inside workings of 
French minds, as one soon finds 
from the general conversation in a French 
salon. Things which we do not talk about, 
even if we know of them, are frequently 
common knowledge and openly discussed. 
It is interesting to mingle with French 
whose opinions are of importance, and to 
hear their ideas, always friendly, regarding 
us. They speak quite intimately; knowing, 
I understand and appreciate their point of 
view, although frequently it is quite different 
from our own. Studying the French and 
the developments from day to day is like 
watching an ever-changing kaleidoscope. 
It is almost impossible to keep informed on 
the news up-to-date. Their one and sole 
topic of conversation is the war: one talks 
about it before dinner, during dinner, and 
after dinner. Some one says, "Now, we 
have talked enough about the war, let us 
change the subject," and a feeble attempt 
is made, but always with the same result — 
the conversation reverts to the war. It is 
all one knows; it's all we talked of at the 
last place, or shall at the next; it's all we 



67 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

April 26ih, 

IQ18. 



think of, read of, or care about. In fact, 
it is the one and only absorbing topic every 
one is interested in, as it is nearest their 
hearts. The pros and cons are discussed 
with all their ramifications, and when will 
the war end and how? It isn't all one 
glorious succession of victories, as the 
American press naively v/ould lead one to 
believe. There is a seamy side, which these 
people know, and about which they have no 
hallucinations. "Guillaume" isn't in reality 
a tottering, old, senile degenerate waiting 
to be easily pushed off his wobbly throne, 
as depicted by the American press and 
cartoonists; but the German Army, which 
we choose to personify in him, is a great 
and powerful machine, a serious menace to 
the world, and is no joke, despite our 
caricatures. The foreign press does not 
speak of the enemy in the jesting, flippant 
manner the American papers do. 

The French do not differentiate between 
"William" and the German people. Per- 
haps they are too close to get this perspec- 
tive. All they see is a heartless, cruel, and 
powerful army with hordes of devastating 
and murdering Huns, fighting regardless of 
rules of war or code of honor. Trying to 
lay the blame personally on the Kaiser does 
not occur to them. They haven't the warm 
or even neutral spot in their hearts of other 



68 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



countries to explain German rapacity by- 
blaming this awful cataclysm on one man. 

This leads me to the point that I cannot 
believe the Germans intend to fight the 
Americans to a finish; not through purely 
humanitarian or sentimental reasons, but 
because of the deep-seated bitterness that 
already exists in every English and French 
home. They cannot well afford, for com- 
mercial reasons, to so embitter another hun- 
dred million. Every family in America 
still untouched by the hand of death does 
not yet have this feeling of hatred, and 
is only fighting through a sense of duty, 
of justice and right. When looked at in 
this light, as expressed to me by a French 
officer, it is the most wonderful chivalry 
ever known. The Crusades sink into in- 
significance. 

While in conversation with a Canadian 
Colonel, he spoke of how cheaply human 
life is held. Every English noble house 
has lost its eldest son. All look upon the 
body as simply a box temporarily inhabited, 
and death as a perfectly natural occurrence 
to be expected. He told a story of the 
readiness with which many Germans now 
surrender when given the opportunity. 
This day hundreds came running into the 
English trenches with their hands up calling 
**Kamerad.'* An English sergeant standing 



Paris, France, 
April 26th, 
1918. 



69 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

April 26th, 

IQ18. 



at the end of the trench allowed them to 
pass, stopping each one and making him 
say, ''God save the King." 

A French Captain whom I met at dinner 
at the Duke of Montmorency's, who had 
been wounded three times, told of killing 
fifteen hundred Germans in one afternoon 
(official estimate) at Verdun the day he 
was wounded, with his machine company. 
The Germans advanced in solid formation, 
in wave after wave, and were mowed down 
by his "mitrailleuses," hidden in shell- 
craters, like wheat before a mowing machine. 
He and his men had been ordered to hold 
their places and to fight until death; how- 
ever, they lost only about ten men. The 
intrepid bravery of the Germans is spoken 
of unhesitatingly by the French. 

If the Germans had thrown one more 
fresh division in at Verdun, they could 
have gone straight thru to Paris; how- 
ever, luckily, they either didn't know this 
or didn't have the division. 

I wrote, during the winter, of Paris being 
almost gay, at least quite normal on the 
surface. There has been a marked change 
since the air-raids and long distance can- 
nonading commenced,* to which I thought 

*There were over five hundred aerial bombs and over five 
hundred long-distance six-inch shells, all containing high explo- 
sives, dropped on Paris. 



70 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



the depression was due, as people were 
panicky, and a million left the city. The 
provincial towns, Biarritz and resorts on 
the Riviera are crowded. At some of the 
stations are signs, "Don't get off here, there 
are no more beds." However, the general 
sadness that has come into everyone's heart 
is due more to apprehension and the awful 
carnage of the great German drive. The 
spring defensive and another season's cam- 
paign is enough to depress people, but 
underlying it all is a grim determination. 

Affectionately, 

FERD. 



Paris, France, 
April 26th, 
1918. 



71 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Orleans, France, May 1st, igi8. 

NE constantly must study the 
courtesies and formalities which 
are so dear to a Frenchman's 
heart, for they are quick to 
imagine a lack of refinement and recoil 
under the aggressive manners of the Amer- 
ican officers. It is necessary to observe 
what seems to us an exaggerated form of 
politeness — a regular Alphonse and Gaston 
continuous performance. For instance, 
upon entering an office, a regular round of 
hand-shaking ensues, and again twice be- 
fore leaving, once upon starting to leave, 
and after much more conversation, again 
upon actually departing. 

It is most important to delicately first 
gain a Frenchman's confidence by agreeing 
with his point of view, and then he will 
usually reciprocate by conceding your point 
of view and granting the favor requested. 
Frenchmen are rather shy of the rapidity 
with which Americans do business. 

The poorest way to make haste is to show 
an indication of being in a hurry, or by 
coming directly to the point, for one saves 
time in the long run by going over a cer- 
tain amount of preliminary formalities and 



72 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



lengthy explanations even in the most 
urgent matters. 

Most affectionately, your devoted son, 

FERD. 



Orleans, France, 
May 1st, 
1918. 



73 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, May ^rd, igi8. 




ERE I am on the Staff of 
General de I'Espee, command- 
ing the Fifth French Army 
Corps, acting as assistant to 
Captain J. Tarn McGrew. 

The shell that struck the Ste. Gervaise 
church in Paris Good Friday afternoon, 
killing seventy-five of the worshiping con- 
gregation, hit not over five minutes' walk 
from the American Headquarters, at the 
Hotel Mediterranee, and probably was 
intended for us. 

Easter Sunday morning, instead of 
attending divine service, I visited the 
Cathedral, a scene of horror and destruc- 
tion. The shell had struck the arch and 
exploded over the main nave, causing part 
of the stone roof to collapse, burying the 
worshiping congregation under tons of 
rock. It was in a pyramid, ten feet high, 
like a great funeral pyre, with many pieces 
of rock several feet square. There were 
half dried pools of blood where bodies had 
been crushed. It was a chance hit, and 
looked like the hand of destiny, striking at 
this moment and place on so sacred a 
day. 



74 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



People were feeling pretty blue, and the 
railway stations and trains were jammed 
with crowds getting away. The first days 
of the bombardment the telephones were 
stopped, the telegraph offices closed, and 
the railroad stations deserted by the em- 
ployes. 

At luncheon Monday, which was a holi- 
day, at the Maurice, every one seemed gay, 
unmindful of the city being shelled, and 
that one of the greatest battles in the history 
of mankind* was being fought at a distance 
slightly greater than that from Elgin to 
Chicago or Bridgeport to New York. Ten- 
sion was relieved, however, at better news 
from the front, where things had been 
going "not at all well." 

An unusual thing happened several days 
ago. I was walking up the street with the 
Provost Marshal ; he stopped several officers 
asking where they were going, and where 
from, and they replied, from the Artillery 
School at Saumur. I said, "Why, I have 
a cousin there; perhaps you know him." 
Upon further inquiry, I found there were 
several hundred artillery officers at the 
station on their way to the front, so we 
walked to the station and lo and behold! 
there was cousin Ferd, looking well and 

*This was during the Germans' first spring drive of 1918, when 
the Fifth British Army was destroyed. 



75 



Orleans, France, 
May 3rd, 
1918. 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

May 3rd, 

1918. 



delighted to see me. The train pulled out 
in several minutes and it was almost like a 
fleeting apparition. 

They were a wonderful lot of fine young 
thorobreds, for, as you know, it requires 
some knowledge of mathematics to be an 
artillery officer, and they were probably all 
college boys. 

Devotedly, 

FERD. 



76 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Orleans, France^ May I2th, igi8. 

OR weeks since the battle started, 
one can go down to the railway 
station in this small city any 
evening and see crowds of desti- 
tute refugees huddled together in the French 
Red Cross Military Canteen awaiting 
various train connections. The wretches, 
although respectable peasants and towns- 
people, feeble old men, women with 
dishevelled hair, and dirty children, have 
fled for their lives before the bloodthirsty 
advancing Huns. They are huddled to- 
gether like dumb animals in a storm, re- 
maining mute, neither complaining nor 
begging. They are transported and fed by 
the Government and conveyed to other 
towns, where they again seek work or eke 
out whatever existence they can. Bereft 
of their homes, cottages, stores, gardens, 
and all their worldly goods and means of 
subsistence, their meager savings of a life- 
time, and perhaps inheritances of several 
generations, the poor wretches still almost 
have an appearance of "Are we down- 
hearted .? Well, I guess not." The babies 
and younger children sleep or play, for they 
are too young to realize the tragedy, and the 
older girls and mothers have a resigned or 



77 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

May i2th, 

1918. 



despairing look of taking it all for granted, 
as if it were only natural and to be expected. 

They have become accustomed to this 
after four years, for it is not their first 
experience of this sort, when they have 
been driven from their homes and their 
country invaded by the enemy. 

The Belgian refugees are unfortunately 
called "immigrants" by the French working 
classes. They have not received the most 
hospitable haven of refuge in France, as 
they are regarded as lazy. At the time 
of the German advance through Belgium, 
there were forty thousand Belgian wounded 
dumped on London in one week, none of 
whom spoke either French or English, but 
Flemish. It was chaos. The mud and 
dirt was caked on their faces and bodies 
so thick it had to be soaked loose with 
vaseline. 

Such sights make one profoundly happy 
for the very privilege of living. The mere 
thought of being clothed, well fed, warm 
and happy, with a comfortable place to 
sleep is enough to make one glow with 
thankfulness that fate has not ordained 
this for him. 

The station is usually swarming with 
French "poilus," going and coming from 
the front. You know the meaning of the 
word *'poilu" is "hairy boys," "poil" mean- 



78 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



ing "hair." At the beginning of the war, 
before things were organized, they had no 
chance to shave, and became very hairy. 
But now all French soldiers, when on leave, 
have a clean new uniform kept for the 
purpose, and they are forbidden to appear 
in the streets in their dirty trench clothes. 

Brussels is used as a clearing house by 
the Germans returning from the front on 
leave. They stop there for two days to 
renovate. This is in order to prevent 
taking home too strong and grimy a trench 
odor with all its sordidness. Champagne 
is drunk freely by German officers in 
Brussels to liven them before returning. 

Wounded soldiers are no longer brought 
to the hospitals of Paris, and few even to 
the big Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly, a 
suburb, as every effort is made to maintain 
the public morale as cheerful as possible. I 
understand that even in Dunkirk, which has 
been constantly shelled for two years, the 
trams continue to run and business goes 
on as usual. People have heroically moved 
their bedrooms to the cellars and **carry 
on." 

This war has revealed unexpected na- 
tional traits of character. The French, 
who are normally light hearted and gay, 
forbid dancing, while the staid English 
encourage gaiety. London is livelier than 



Orleans, France, 
May I2th, 
J918. 



79 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

May 1 2th, 

1918. 



ever with dances for the soldiers on leave 
from the front. General immorality in 
France is surprisingly lacking. I mean 
aside from the regulars. After leaving the 
stench of the sea-ports, Paris appears moral, 
and, until recently, normal. Poor Paris 
is no longer "Gai Paree.'* Most of the 
theaters, excepting perhaps half a dozen, 
after spasmodically struggling to keep open 
during the past two months' bombardment, 
are now closed. Some evenings they were 
open and others closed, one never knowing 
in advance, depending upon the violence of 
the previous aerial raid. Frequently they 
closed during the performance, when the 
"alert" was sounded and everybody scur- 
ried home in the darkness, as best they 
could, or descended into the caves. All 
theaters have explicit directions and con- 
spicuous signs posted for reaching the 
"caves." In fact, the latest is a theater in 
a cellar, called the "Abri"— "Refuge." 

Affectionately, 

FERD. 



80 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




American Expeditionary Forces 
Office of the Liaison Officer 

Orleans, FrancCy May 2ist, iqi8. 

T'S an odd coincidence; you 
were in my mind this morning 
when I awoke, and I looked for 
your letter of March i in order 
to write you, and here upon my arrival at 
the office is another letter which I am 
really most delighted to receive. 

Judging from your letter, life is going on 
in New York about the same as usual, and 
it is astonishing how much so that is the 
case here, with the civilian population. 

My work is strictly of a diplomatic 
nature, between the French military au- 
thorities and commanding officers of Amer- 
ican troops stationed in the Fifth Region. 
Owing to the difference in customs, tem- 
perament, and viewpoint, there are con- 
stantly many complicated and delicate 
questions arising to be settled, requiring 
the greatest tact. Their satisfactory ad- 
justment without friction is naturally of 
the utmost importance, and it is the work 
of the Liaison Officers to be persona gratia 
with the French and to supply the necessary 
drop of oil to insure this. 



81 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

May 2jst, 

1918. 



The American Liaison Service was organ- 
ized during the winter by Major H. H. 
Harjes of the banking firm of Morgan- 
Harjes, and of the former Norton-Harjes 
Ambulance Service, before it was absorbed 
by the Red Cross,"^ when the United States 
entered the war. Do not confuse this with 
the Corps of Interpreters, which is quite a 
different service. The Liaison Service con- 
sists only of officers, mostly Captains and 
Majors, and some Lieutenants. It was the 
intention to have nothing less than Cap- 
tains; however, the War Department is 
reluctant in granting the increase in rank. 

As paradoxical as it may seem, commis- 
sions and promotion are more difficult to 
secure ''over here" than in America. Large 
numbers of officers are being shipped back 
who have not made good. The weeding 
process is severe, and officers are returned 
to America without the slightest hesitancy 
when considered incompetent. 

I am on the road in my army car three 
or four days each week, which is most 
agreeable. 

By looking at the departmental map in 
the Encyclopedia Britannica, you can see 
exactly what the Fifth Army Corps Region 
comprises: the Departments of Loiret, Loir- 
et-Cher, Yonne, and Seine-et-Marne. In 

*Later by the Axaerican Army. 



82 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



your Baedeker of Northern France you will 
see the garrison town of Orleans is notable — 
in addition to Jeanne d'Arc — as being the 
headquarters of the Fifth Army Corps. 
General de I'Espee lives in a governmental 
residence similar to a governor's palace. 
There are over a hundred thousand French 
soldiers in the Region and about the same 
number of Americans. 

My work is never two days alike, and my 
experiences are like an ever-changing kalei- 
doscope. Last Saturday, I accompanied 
the French General, with his Chief of 
Staff, and others of his staff officers to take 
part in the ceremonies of the christening and 
flying of the first American aeroplane as- 
sembled in France at Romarantin, which 
was quite an occasion — the General at first 
giving a luncheon for the members of his 
party. 

In spite of your finding my letters inter- 
esting, I can write only in a superficial way, 
and am compelled to omit mentioning many 
of the most important things, or only speak 
of them in a casual manner. 

Sincerely, as ever, your friend, 

FERD. 



Orleans, France, 
May 2ist, 
igi8. 



83 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Orleans, France, June 2nd, igi8. 

^OUR charming and loving letter 
of April 28th, from the farm, 
was forwarded from Bourges and 
received on the 25th. It was 
opened by the French censor. I endeavor 
to send you a descriptive letter about 
twice a month, which requires some time, 
as there is no stenographer in this town 
able to even copy English writing, unless 
spelled out in a bold school-boy hand. I 
always like to mail separate copies of these 
letters by different steamers, as some are 
newsy, and may fall under the censor's ax. 

This is a mediocre, uninteresting French 
provincial city of one hundred thousand, re- 
taining none of its former medieval splen- 
dor, with the exception of a fine old cathe- 
dral, several statues and a museum. The 
people are provincial in the extreme, and 
there is not even a good tourist hotel. 

You know the form of government of 
France tends to centralize and draw all 
that is best towards Paris. Everything 
radiates from Paris like the spokes of a 
wheel, even the railroads. All that is 
worth while in education, wealth, culture, 
ability and breeding drains into Paris, to 
such an extent as is unknown in America. 



84 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



The entire governmental machinery is con- 
structed with this in view. Civil France is 
divided into eighty-six Departments, cor- 
responding to our states or counties, but 
instead of a governor elected by the people, 
there is a Prefet, and under him a Sous- 
Prefet, both appointed by the Minister of 
Interior, who has been appointed by the 
President of France, and who in turn was 
elected by popular vote of the people. 
While it is a representative republican 
organization, at the same time it focuses 
all in a very powerful centralized govern- 
ment. Such a thing as "states' rights" is 
unknown. The result is that men of 
ability aspire to local fame merely as a 
stepping stone. 

All advancement is towards Paris. All 
large banks are there. The Credit Lyon- 
nais, Comptoir National, Banque de France, 
and Societe Generale handle practically all 
the banking business of France thru their 
hundreds of branches. 

There are no colleges or universities of 
international importance aside from the 
Sorbonne — University of Paris — where there 
were over fifty thousand students before 
the war. Instead of professors and other 
governmental employments remaining lo- 
cally prominent to add luster to their home 



85 



Orleans, France, 
June 2nd, 
1918. 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

June 2nd, 

IQlS. 



cities, they are advanced toward the 
CapitaL 

Paris is the Mecca of the world of brains, 
wealth, talent and beauty. Artists are 
paid little, as they are willing to perform 
simply for the name — in fact, they must, 
otherwise they are not wanted by the 
Provinces. 

The fact is that most prominent Pari- 
sians, if not themselves born in the Prov- 
inces, their parents or grandparents were. 
The difference is like two different races. 
It is as in America; they quickly lose their 
provincialism when they move to the 
Metropolis. 

Military France is divided into twenty- 
two Regions, each commanded by a Lieu- 
tenant General who, with his staff is sta- 
tioned in the principal city. In each Region 
is the headquarters of an Army Corps. 
"Etat Major, 5eme Region," means Staff 
Headquarters, Fifth Army Corps. This 
Region comprises four departments and is 
one of the most central and important. 
The commanding general of each Region 
occupies a prominent position and has the 
authority of a small potentate, responsible 
directly to the Minister of War. 

Very devotedly, 

FERD. 



86 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



^ "^^^5 


4 





Orleans, France, June i8th, igi8. 

UST a line to let you know I am 
well and happy and too busy to 
write. I have been fully occu- 
pied during the past two weeks, 
since temporarily taking over the office of 
the Provost Marshal on June 5th, which 
reminds me it is almost that long since I last 
wrote. My! how the time flies! It is 
incredible. Of course we are all very happy 
over the American successes, because it 
means ultimate victory. But we are pass- 
ing through a most serious phase of the 
war this summer, as the Germans realize 
it is Paris now or never, and they are 
making a superhuman effort to get close 
enough to shell the Capital with heavy 
long-range guns. It is the Americans who 
have temporarily stopped the Germans 
and given them a rude shock; however, the 
drives are expected to last all summer or 
until the Germans are exhausted. They 
bitterly hate the Americans. 

I am unable to write much regarding the 
military situation, as it is too serious. Or- 
leans is packed to overflowing, and rooms 
impossible to get. I have a Corporal out 
now piloting and interpreting for a dozen 
officers, trying to get them rooms in private 



87 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

June i8th, 

IQiS. 



houses for the night. When the situation 
becomes too acute, I send to the Mayor and 
secure "billets de logement/' which means 
lodging officers in private homes in the 
name of the law, without payment. Thirty 
were lodged the other night. They marched 
up the street, ringing the door-bells of the 
places on the list, and handed in the slips 
with two officers, saying *T have brought 
two officers to be lodged for the night." 
The householders could not refuse. 

They were all clean, pleasant homes of 
the better class, and the occupants were all 
hospitable in taking in the American officers. 

As I was returning from a motor trip the 
people called after the passing car, **God 
bless you," and the little children enthusi- 
astically waved greetings. We are the hope, 
I'espoir, the salvation, and they know it. 
The fighting qualities of our troops have 
been a revelation. Our men, as new as they 
are, are wonderful fighters, and whereas 
there was previously a feeling of indifferent 
tolerance, there is now one of actual rever- 
ence for us. 

Lots of love to you all, devotedly, 

FERD. 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



u 


1 



Fontainebleau, France, July 20th, iQi8. 

HIS beautiful little city, not 
so far from the fighting, is 
peaceful, except for swarming 
soldiers. The fine hotels which 
were crowded all winter are deserted. 
People are fleeing from Paris and the front. 
The roads contained long lines of wagons 
and carts of all sorts, loaded with refugees, 
old men, women, and children, furniture, 
household utensils of every description, 
cows, dogs, and all sorts of domestic ani- 
mals, flying before the onrushing hordes 
like birds before a storm. 

One marvels at their almost gay look of 
contentment. The psychology is that after 
the first panic at the news of the approach- 
ing Germans has subsided, and they have 
reached safety, a temporary reaction sets 
in, almost a gay hysteria. The great sorrow 
commences after the excitement of the flight 
is past and they settle down to the realiza- 
tion of the loss of all their worldly posses- 
sions, and years of poverty and miserable 
struggle for existence that lie ahead. 

The flight has been stopped, thank God! 
for the moment, by the hardihood and in- 
trepid bravery of the Americans. The 
French are inclined to save their men, but 



89 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Fontainehleau, 

France., 

July 20th, 

1918. 



Americans threw themselves into the vortex 
of the fiery furnace and fought regardless 
of loss of life,* as the Germans do, deter- 
mined at all costs to stop their further 
advance on Paris. 

They fought with the dash and courage 
and keen resourcefulness of our early pioneer 
forefathers, of which you and I are so 
justly proud. A year's simple life and 
outdoor training in the camps of America 
and on the fields of France has again devel- 
oped the same latent qualities of stamina 
and made them brawny, sinewy and hard, 
able to stand the gruelling strain and hard- 
ships of the battlefield. 

When they charge, they dash forward 
with the abandon as if in a foot-ball game. 
They frequently throw away their coats 
and helmets, rolling up their sleeves, to 
the wonder of these foreign soldiers, as they 
shoot, beat, bayonet, kill and annihilate 
everything before them with their youth- 
ful strength and energy, frequently taking 
no prisoners,** which has terrorized the 
Germans; but don't think this is done with- 
out heavy losses. 

Would that I could open up and tell you 
of all that is going on! I have to be so 
guarded in what I say, now that the war is 

*About one-half of two divisions was lost at Ch&teau-Thierry. 
**Owing to German treachery. 



90 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



at the most furious period of the past four 
years. The Germans, gloating over their 
successes, are determined to bring the war 
to a victorious finish this season by taking 
Paris, and later cutting the American Hnes 
of communication, before our full strength 
can be brought to bear next year. 

Lots of love to you all. 

Very devotedly, 

FERD. 



Fontainebleau, 
France, 
July 20th, 
1918. 



91 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Orleans^ France^ July 22nd, IQ18. 

HE time is racing by so rapidly 
it seems impossible to keep ac- 
count of it. I have been con- 
stantly in the midst of a whirl 
since taking over the office of Provost Mar- 
shal, in addition to my regular liaison duties, 
attending and officiating at functions of 
all kinds, including luncheons, funerals, 
church memorial services, athletic events, 
receiving guests, military reviews, etc., 
particularly in connection with the cele- 
brations on the 4th and 14th of July, which 
were elaborate. 

I was busy for days in advance with the 
French Staff arranging the all-day programs 
for these days. The French are fond of 
fetes and ceremonies and are anxious to 
render all the homage possible to Americans 
on every possible occasion. They have 
found it easy to handle American business 
through me, so I am called upon for every 
possible kind of service. 

On July 14th, the French military review 
and the awarding of decorations was held 
by General de I'Espee. The American 
Brigadier General Vollrath was here from 
Saint Aignan with a band of fifty pieces 



92 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



and a color guard of sixty. The review 
was held with a great deal of pomp and 
ceremony. 

I spent the entire afternoon and evening 
of the previous day informally with General 
Vollrath and his aid, showing them all the 
historical points of interest in Orleans, later 
dining and attending the theater together. 
When we entered it was announced from 
the stage that an American General had 
arrived and the national anthems of Amer- 
ica and France were played, while the 
audience stood. 

After the review at nine a. m. we went 
to the only Protestant church, where 
memorial services had been arranged. 
The church was small and unimportant, 
as the powerful churches are Catholic ; how- 
ever a Y. M. C. A. chaplain preached an 
inspiring sermon. The French pastor spoke 
in French, and American hymns were sung 
by a choir of American soldiers. 

At noon a formal luncheon was given by 
General de I'Espee* for nine American and 
nine French officers, including four Generals, 
the Mayor of Orleans and the Prefet.** It 
was a most distinguished gathering, and 
although I was the only officer of modest 

*At the commencement of the war he was the foremost 
Cavalry General in France, but with the introduction of trench 
warfare his cavalry divisions were dismounted. 

**Local Governor. 



93 



Orleans, France, 
July 22nd, 
JQiS. 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

July 22nd, 

1918. 



rank present, I was treated with the same 
kindness and respect as the Generals them- 
selves. The other American officers were 
given a luncheon at the officers' club. Dur- 
ing the luncheon the band played in the 
square in front of the hotel, and afterwards, 
during coffee, we went out on the balcony 
overlooking the crowd, like royalty. The 
public square below was filled with thou- 
sands of cheering people. 

At three o'clock athletic events were held 
between the French and Americans at 
which the Americans took all first prizes. 
There were also boxing matches. General 
VoUrath had brought with him a track 
team of fifteen, who had captured all the 
honors at Paris on the Fourth. There was 
an enormous crowd of thousands of specta- 
tors and I was the day's master of cere- 
monies for the Americans, while a French 
Major had charge of the French. 

At five-thirty the doctors held a recep- 
tion to inaugurate the opening of the new 
two thousand-bed hospital. Base 202. At 
seven-thirty the French medical officers 
gave a dinner to the American officers, at 
which there was much after-dinner speak- 
ing and eulogistic praise exchanged. 

The Fourth of July was even a bigger day 
then the Fourteenth. The Fourth was 



94 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



arranged in our honor by the French and 
we reciprocated on the Fourteenth. 

Since starting to write, I have received 
an emergency 'phone call from one of the 
many small villages, where we are requisi- 
tioning horses, to send an ambulance for a 
soldier kicked and unconscious and in bad 
condition. We are requisitioning five thou- 
sand horses in this Region in five weeks, 
taking them out of the harvest fields to 
the consternation of the farmers. The 
horse question is most acute, as it has sud- 
denly developed that enormous' numbers 
are needed to move supplies where motors 
cannot be used at the front. The British 
lost fifty thousand when their Fifth Army 
was destroyed in the spring. And now 
the French are scouring the country for 
fifty thousand in response to our emergency 
call. Lieut. Lydig Hoyt has charge in this 
Region, and Lieut.-Colonel Richard H. Wil- 
liams, Jr., as head of the Remount Service, 
and both Liaison Officers, has entire charge. 

French 'phone connection is interminabl)^ 
slow, so I walked over to the new American 
hospital, to get an ambulance, where the 
reception was held on the Fourteenth and 
the first batch of four hundred wounded 
was received on the sixteenth. It's a sight 
horrible enough to weaken the stanchest 
heart. 



Orleans, France, 
July 22nd, 
1918. 



95 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

July 22nd, 

1918. 



The small staff of doctors and nurses are 
working day and night. Fortunately there 
are several hundred hospital orderlies and 
men to assist. These soldiers, with the 
most horrible wounds, many of which I saw 
dressed, some minus arms or legs, and who 
were in the battle of Monday the fifteenth,* 
are positively looking fine and are in splen- 
did spirits. A peculiar psychological fact is 
that wounded men with amputations ex- 
press no regrets for the parts lost, and seem 
always cheerful. I have frequently noticed 
this with the French; but to see these big, 
fine specimens of American manhood lying 
there, mangled and amputated, without ut- 
tering a murmur of complaint or remorse, 
and suffering the most intense agony when 
their gaping wounds are dressed, is enough 
to make one offer up a silent prayer to Al- 
mighty God. 

I am accustomed to hear men complain 
in camp, but after living through this 
purge of fire they come out of it purer and 
more noble. War is a terrific purifier and 
purger of men's souls. 

Lots of love to you all from your devoted 
son, 

FERD. 



•At Chfiteau-Thierry, 



96 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Orleans, France, July 2yth, igi8. 

HAVE just returned from the 
hospital and find your charming 
letter of July 8th on my desk. 
Your letters and those of some 
of my friends are a wonderful incentive and 
inspiration to maintain one's spirits and to 
keep up the good work. The appreciation 
and admiration of those one loves is a won- 
derful stimulus, and is really all we live for 
over here, and is what many are dying for. 
Another American sanitary train load of 
two hundred and fifty, mostly seriously 
wounded, arrived last night from the front. 
They were in the battle Monday. I was 
at the station and it was a wonderful sight. 
I say wonderful in the sense of awe-inspiring, 
sublime, to see these great steel cars, 
especially built by us for use on these small 
railroads — plainly painted and simply let- 
tered "U. S.," with nothing more — smoothly 
gliding and bearing its load of suffering, 
burned and mangled human freight on 
stretchers. These hardy, brave and un- 
complaining Americans are made of the 
same sturdy stuff that made our fore- 
fathers famous at Lexington, and made 
them push later as pioneers across the wild 
prairies of the Middle West. 



97 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

July 27th, 

1918. 



As a little group of us stood silently 
around the cars, the hospital orderlies and 
attendants worked quietly and swiftly, gen- 
tly lifting the stretchers from the cars, with 
scarcely a word and without confusion. 
The officers were all in one car, about 
twenty, including a desperately wounded 
Colonel and Major. But there was nothing 
to distinguish them; all were treated alike. 
There was never a harsh or rough word; 
all were spellbound by the solemnity of 
these wounded heroes returning from the 
field of battle. Each man was well band- 
aged, wore pajamas, and was wrapped in a 
blanket. They lay silently on their stretch- 
ers, looking worn and pale in spite of their 
heavy coating of tan, never moaning nor 
uttering a word except occasionally in reply 
to a question from the stretcher-bearers. 
One boy of not over nineteen, who had one 
leg shot away and the other badly wounded, 
simply said, when they tried to make him 
comfortable, "Go easy, pals, I'm suffering 
a little," and thanked them. 

The first train load of wounded, which 
arrived a week ago, was mostly gas cases, 
some light; but as Major Bishop in com- 
mand said to-day, these are a lot of very 
seriously wounded. This mustard gas is a 
dastardly and damnable thing, frightfully 



98 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



blistering and burning the body, especially 
in the moist and hairy places, and making 
the most horrible sores. If enough gets into 
the lungs, it kills either at once or by a long 
and horrible, lingering death. It burns the 
lining membrane on the inside, and causes 
the most horrible agony when on the out- 
side. In talking with some of the cases 
to-day that were burned twelve days ago, 
and are still suffering intensely and linger- 
ing between life and death, they said they 
would far rather lose an arm or leg. It 
is like being horribly burned by fire, and 
after suffering for days, and the nerves and 
human endurance are exhausted, dying. 

The installation and management of the 
hospital are nothing short of marvelous in 
so short a time. Of course, it was a well 
organized base hospital unit that was sent 
from the States with full equipment. But 
they walked into the bare, barren former 
Archbishop's palace, which was used as a 
library, carried out the one hundred thou- 
sand volumes, scrubbed and cleaned the 
place and set up their equipment. The 
iron beds and mattresses and springs and 
bedding are of the best for the purpose. 
They had five men on the tables at a time 
in the operating room last night. There 
are even two dentists' chairs with full equip- 
ment, and likewise a very fine X-ray outfit. 



99 



Orleans, France, 
July 27th, 
191S. 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

July 27th, 

IQX8. 



This is not a gay subject, but a very im- 
portant part of the war — much more so, and 
on a larger scale than one at first imagines. 
They usually figure on a number of beds 
equal to ten per cent of the army, which 
means hospitalization on a staggering scale. 

I am happy to know the nation at home 
is stanchly behind us, as you say and as is 
shown by the enormous number of well- 
equipped and trained troops arriving 
monthly. You can hardly imagine with 
what a sense of relief we see the pendulum 
starting to swing the other way. 

One of the men who arrived last night 
says they took two German prisoners, who 
were women, chained to a cannon to make 
them fight. This sounds far-fetched, hardly 
reasonable. But the fact is there are a 
great many young boys of fifteen or sixteen 
among the German troops, who when cap- 
tured off^er no resistance and throw up their 
hands, crying for mercy and "Kamerad.'* 

Next week I will have two gold service 
chevrons on the sleeve of my left forearm, 
for a year's service in France. 

Poor little Jimmie! This country is full 
of dogs. I have never before seen so many. 
The other day, I saw six or eight in one 
bunch, of all breeds, trotting along dog- 
fashion, mindless of the war. There seems 
to be plenty of food — at least for the dogs — 



100 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



and the French resent it if one suggests kill- 
ing some of the dogs. They must have their 
dogs loose and without muzzles, even if it 
is war! You may tell Jimmie that dogs 
here look upon autos with disdain, and make 
them turn out of their way. 

Lots of love to you all, from your devoted 
son, 

FERD. 



Orleans, France, 
July 2ph, 
1918. 



101 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Paris y France y Aug. I2thy igi8. 

RETURNED last night after 
a magnificent week at the sea- 
shore at Deauville,* feeling re- 
freshed both mentally and phys- 
ically; the first leave in a year. This week 
was like a cooling drink of fresh spring water 
to a parched man. You cannot imagine the 
elation and sense of relief to have absolutely 
nothing to do but amuse oneself and to be 
free from military duties after so long and 
steady a grind. 

Despite the belief in America the whole 
of the French male population is not 
fighting at the front. While there was no 
dancing nor gambling nor Hungarian or- 
chestras in the restaurants, there were still 
a lot of charming and well dressed people 
taking their summer holidays. Owing to 
the fear of submarines, the north coast is 
not packed as is the case at Biarritz. 

There were a lot of beautiful women from 
all classes, a number of handsome British 
oflRcers, as this is in their zone and there is 
a large camp nearby, and a sprinkling of 
French and Americans on "leave." How- 
ever, most of the American officers, and 
there are a lot of them now, do not get 

*Corrcsponds to Newport. 



102 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



beyond Paris, as they prefer to remain there 
and are not familiar with the beautiful 
places in the country. 

It seems that almost all the people I 
know in France were there, at least the 
most interesting ones, and I, as usual, had 
a wonderful time, free from anxiety and 
responsibility. It really brought me back 
to the realization that there was once a 
time when all of life was not war. The 
wonderful communiques of the brilliant 
successes of our troops have again made 
everyone take a new lease on life and feel 
almost light-hearted and gay. 

The French women try to believe this is 
the end, as they really crave peace at any 
price; but no American here cajoles him- 
self into the belief the job can be finished 
before Marechal Foch makes his grand of- 
fensive in the spring of 1919, which will no 
doubt take all of next summer. The war 
has become a habit and steady grind. We 
are no longer thinking of advancement and 
honors. Each individual is a very small 
infinitesimal part of this great swirling and 
seething mass, as we have long since learned, 
each plugging away and keeping up the 
steady pressure. 

Among others, I had the pleasure of 
meeting and knowing well at Deauville 



103 



Paris, France, 
Aug. I2th, 
1918. 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

Aug. I2th, 

1918. 



were Baron* Henri de Rothschild, owner of 
the magnificent home where the Inter- 
AUied Club is quartered in the Faubourg 
St. Honore; Baron Maurice de Rothschild; 
Mme. Bernstein, wife of the playwright, 
young and beautiful; Mme. and Mile. 
Vesnitch, wife and daughter of the Servian 
minister; the Persian minister himself; Mme. 
Frangois Darblay, the young and beau- 
tiful wife of one of the richest ammunition 
manufacturers in France; Etienne Bunau- 
Varilla, son of the owner of the ''Matin"; 
Baron de Wardener; M. Letellier, former 
owner of the Paris "Journal"; the opera 
singer, Mile. Merentie, who is coming to 
the Metropolitan after the war; and Lieut. 
Paul Jentien with whom I went and whose 
mother-in-law has a beautiful villa. So 
you see I was in no sense lonely. Most of 
these names mean nothing to you but are 
all prominent in France. 

Lieut. Jentien, who has charge of repair 
parts for American cars in the French 
Army, of which there are many thousands, 
says the Pierce-Arrow is the best truck 
built, but is partial to the Ford for light 
work on account of its extreme cheapness 
and small loss in case it is wrecked or 
struck by a shell. 

♦Major. 



104 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



The enclosed telegram called me back a 
day sooner than I had expected and means 
another advancement, in that there were 
two Liaison Officers at Orleans, Captain 
Tarn McGrew, uncle of Mimi Scott, and 
myself. He has been transferred to the 
front, attached to General Gouraud, com- 
manding the Fourth Army. 

I had already asked to be relieved as 
Provost Marshal, as the double work 
was more than I could handle, and the 
Liaison Service is more important, being of 
a diplomatic nature. I call it the **Mili- 
tary Diplomatic Service." 

I had luncheon to-day at Giro's with three 
Marine Corps Captains, who have been 
through the most desperate of the fighting, 
and Mrs. Swift Fernald, who is nursing at 
the Red Cross Hospital at Neuilly. 

They say that Hennen Le Gendre has 
distinguished himself for bravery and is 
making good. He advanced alone under 
machine gun fire several hundred feet to a 
wounded soldier calling for help and carried 
him back to safety on his back. He is very 
powerful, as you know. He is adjutant to 
the commanding officer of the Third Battal- 
ion of the Fifth Regiment Marines with 
which we came over. He was commis- 
sioned shortly after I was. The fates of 
war have scattered the three of us who 



105 



Paris, France, 
Aug. I2th, 
1918. 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, Francfy 
Jug. J2th, 

JQiS. 



came over together, Gus, Hennen and me 
to the four winds. We have all made good 
and secured our commissions wherever we 
could. Gus was commissioned in the En- 
gineer Corps and is transport officer at 
one of the ports. I am commissioned in 
the Infantry and Hennen in the Marines. 
Before spring I hope to be transferred to 
the front so as to take part in Marechal 
Foch's big final drive. 

Lots of love from, 

FERD. 



106 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Staff Headquarters, French Fifth 
Army Corps 

Orleans, France, Aug. 2^th, igi8. 

INCE returning from Deauville 
I am more engrossed in my 
fascinating work than ever, 
keenly enjoying every moment. 

While away I spent thirty-six hours on 
the U. S. S. Matsonia at Brest with brother 
Jack and his pals, having a very pleasant 
visit. Brest is as unattractive as all the 
other seaport cities. 

This is where the largest U. S. transports 
come in, including the colossal ships taken 
over from the Germans, as it is the only 
sufficiently deep-water harbor assigned to 
the Americans. Before the war, Brest was 
closed to Trans-Atlantic shipping, and was 
reserved exclusively for a French Naval 
Base. 

The smaller freighters land at the miles 
of modern wooden docks, built by us for 
the purpose at Bordeaux, which is forty 
miles from the coast up the Gironde River. 

I have really achieved by a most unfore- 
seen route a long-cherished desire to enter 
the diplomatic service. Cutting loose from 
placid Long Island surroundings, and en- 



107 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Aug. 25th, 

IC18. 



listing in the Marines, I was buffeted about 
as a Corporal on this foaming sea of 
humanity, unrecognized and unknown, 
until, thanks to the judgment of Major 
Straight I was brought to the attention of 
the banker, Major Harjes, to whom was 
entrusted the delicate task of forming a 
Diplomatic Liaison Service with the French 
Army. This service was already in exist- 
ence under the guiding hands of such able 
men as Tardieu, from the French side, in 
that French Officers known as "French 
Mission*' were attached to our organiza- 
tions. However, Major Harjes* work was to 
attach American officers to the French Staffs. 

The "Sammie" is loved by the French, be- 
cause he is a fine soldier and is wrenching a 
devastated land from the grasp of a treach- 
erous enemy, and because he is at the same 
time modest. The French press has de- 
voted so much laudatory space to Ameri- 
cans that the awkward tone of occasional 
apologetic articles complimentary to the 
English, who are not personally liked by 
the French, is positively amusing. 

With much love to you all. 

Devotedly, your son, 

FERD. 



108 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Orleans, France^ Sept. isth, igi8. 

OUR two wonderful and sustain- 
ing letters of August 19th and 
22nd came this morning, just as 
I was beginning to wonder when 
I would again hear from you. You know 
your letters are like oil on a flame. It re- 
minds me of Al Jolson of the Winter Garden 
who, when he has kept the house in roars of 
laughter for an hour, says, 'That's it! Ap- 
plaud some more and I will kill myself!" 
That's the spirit of all the boys over here, 
and is what makes them unhesitatingly face 
death for the applause of the loved ones at 
home. The great majority are thoroly 
yearning for home, and want to hurry to 
finish the job, because, despite their home- 
sickness, no one considers for a moment 
returning before Germany is thoroly 
crushed and brought pleading to her knees. 
We do not seriously expect the war to finish 
before another bloody season. Unless Ger- 
many unexpectedly collapses and is con- 
sumed by internal war and revolution, there 
will be the most desperate fighting of all 
when we reach the German lairs beyond the 
frontier. I expect it to end in one awful 
internal convulsion. 



109 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Sept. 15th, 

1918. 



Since Captain McGrew went to the front, 
I have a mass of work to attend to. This 
region extends from twenty-five miles north 
of Paris to one hundred and twenty-five 
south and roughly one hundred and fifty 
east and west, taking in part of the front. 

Saturday, Brigadier General Scott came 
from Saint Aignan with his Chief of Staff 
to pay a formal call and take luncheon 
with General de I'Espee. There were also 
several other high officers at luncheon, 
besides Madame and Mademoiselle de 
I'Espee. 

Yesterday morning, upon returning from 
Paris, I found Major-General Bailly, who 
had motored one hundred and twenty-five 
miles from Tonnerre, with his Chief of 
Staff. After luncheon, we held a small 
private conference at the Quartier General, 
General de I'Espee's combined headquar- 
ters and home. 

Devotedly, your son, 

FERD. 



no 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Orleans, France, Sept. 20th, IQ18. 

HILE in Paris, the other day, I 
bumped into Hennen Le Gendre 
looking happy and well, but 
more serious than of yore. It's 
a miracle how I run into friends by the 
merest chance. There must be a lot of 
them over here. He had seen Ferdie III, 
who is also in the Second Division, at the 
front a month before, looking dirty, cooty 
and rough but happy. 

Hennen has been through the thickest of 
all the fighting with the Fifth Marines, and 
has seen his brother officers and men blown 
to pieces by bursting shells — the same ones 
I knew so well. 

The Marines and the balance of the 
Second Division who are used as shock- 
troops have had no rest, and are rushed 
from one battle-front to another to storm 
the enemy and to instill heroism and 
desperate fighting qualities into less ex- 
perienced troops. For days, at Chateau- 
Thierry, they fought and advanced so 
rapidly they were separated from the soup 
field-kitchens and slept uncovered in shot- 
swept shell-holes, covered with lice, filth 
and vermin. 



Ill 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Sept. 20th, 

1918. 



We both enlisted together, expecting to 
remain together in the Marine Corps, and 
after struggHng for a commission in the 
Marines, I was given one in the Infantry 
and landed in a staff position. Hennen 
said, "For God's sake, Ferdie, don't try any 
longer to get to the front. Take it from 
me, as a sincere friend, and stay where you 
are, where you are rendering better service 
than you could elsewhere. The horrors 
have no glamor, and I constantly hope I 
will not return home terribly maimed, with- 
out arms or legs, or blind in both eyes." 
Hennen has the Distinguished Service Cross 
for bravery. The neck of the friend with 
him, and who dined with us, was covered 
with sores from mustard gas, which had 
penetrated to the moist, perspiring skin be- 
tween his collar and gas-mask. This gas is 
in the shape of a very fine powder, and 
must be dissolved by moisture to become 
active. 

Pardon me if I seem to dwell on unpleas- 
ant subjects, but I know you want un- 
biased accounts of actual war facts and 
conditions, and are also interested in hear- 
ing at length about myself. 



Lots of love to all, from 



FERD. 



112 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Orleans^ France, Sept. 2Qth, jgi8. 

N elaborate luncheon and fete, 
press clippings of which are 
enclosed, was recently given by 
the French to inaugurate the 
opening of the Thousandth French Y. M. 
C. A. Canteen at Cercottes. The American 
Y. M. C. A. has donated five million dollars 
for this purpose. Twenty Y. M. C. A. 
representatives and newspaper men ar- 
rived from Paris in a private car for the 
occasion. 

The tank instruction camp of the French 
Army is at Cercottes, and after luncheon 
the small six-ton, two-men Renault tanks 
were put through their trench and hill- 
climbing maneuvers for the Americans, 
who were, much to their amusement, per- 
mitted to experience the novelty of riding 
in them. To watch these small war ma- 
chines, almost like huge beetles, suddenly 
wheel and turn in their own length and 
climb and descend nearly perpendicular 
embankments, is fascinating. They oper- 
ate in fleets of twenty-five with a large 
"mother" tank to break down the sides of 
trenches too broad or deep for them to 
negotiate. Some are equipped with wire- 
less, some with machine guns, while others 



113 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Sept. zgth, 

1918. 



have short 75s, used to throw explosive 
bombs to blow up machine-gun nests. 

The French expect to have twenty thou- 
sand of these small, deadly engines in the 
field next spring. The larger forty-ton 
tanks were not a success, as they were too 
awkward and more readily hit by the 
enemy's shell-fire. 

Affectionately, 

FERD. 



114 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




OrleanSy France, Oct. loth, iqi8. 

|HE arrival of hospital trains of 
freshly wounded has become a 
matter of such regular and al- 
most daily occurrence that I no 
longer pay much attention to them. How- 
ever, Major Bishop, who is a friend, and 
who commands the three thousand-bed 
Base Hospital No. 202, informed me of the 
arrival of three hundred and fifty marines, 
thinking I might see some pals. There is a 
great brotherhood among soldiers far from 
home, as they are dependent on each other, 
and form many warm companionships. 

Major Bishop said they were the finest lot 
he had ever seen, and was enthusiastic in 
their praises. He believes, incidentally, that 
the usual work over here unfits surgeons for 
civil practice, as they become careless in 
performing operations by the wholesale, 
and operate under conditions that civilians 
could not survive. The men are brought 
in like great husky, wounded animals, able 
to stand almost anything. They are all 
X-rayed to locate bullets and pieces of 
shrapnel, and are etherized and operated 
on without that usual ghastly pallor. Even 
the following day they have good color and 
are gay in spite of the daily agony when 



115 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Oct. loth, 

1918. 



their wounds are freshly packed and dressed. 
They recover rapidly and are transferred 
to nearby convalescent camps, where they 
loll in the sunshine like healthy pups. 

The war is making some millions of 
sturdy, healthy young men, who, when not 
fighting, have developed a love for loafing, 
and many of whom will never wish to again 
settle down to monotonous steady work. 

To talk with these fellows is refreshing. 
They are free from any blatant manner, 
and so-called yearning to get to the front 
to kill Germans. These men who have 
charged machine-gun nests with bombs, 
bayonets and shot-guns, slept in shell- 
craters, and subsisted on "iron rations,'* 
and dirty water, and again have charged 
the enemy at daybreak after twenty-four 
hours' march, or packed standing in trucks 
without food, rest or water, are modest. 
These experiences take the dross and desire 
to boast out of men. 

I enjoy studying the psychology of the 
French mind, which was apparently sobered 
beyond recovery, but Germany's peace offer 
has sent a thrill through the nation like a 
powerful stimulant to a dying man. To 
watch the ebb and flow of the public's 
morale is fascinating. On every side peo- 
ple are now planning wild celebrations, 
when peace is signed. It resembles prep- 



116 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



arations for New Year's Eve. However, no 
one wants an immediate peace; and all are 
unanimous in their desire to continue fight- 
ing until Germany is humiliated. 

Major J. Tarn McGrew, the American 
Liaison Officer attached to General Gou- 
raud, writes that recently the Germans 
captured a town where there were eighty- 
six American wounded. Within a few hours 
the Americans retook the town and the 
eighty-six had been bayoneted. He saw 
this. 

Another interesting bit, before I close, is 
that America's diplomacy and gold has- 
tened Bulgaria in signing peace. We never 
declared war on Bulgaria or Turkey, and 
did not recall our Ambassadors, as they 
were left for the very purpose of playing 
politics and diplomacy — and they suc- 
ceeded well. 

Devotedly, 

FERD. 



Orleans, France, 
Oct. loth, 
1918. 



117 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Orleans^ France, Oct. i6th, IQ18. 

WAS just about to write you 
about the epidemic of "Spanish 
flu," as it is called, when your 
letter of September 27th arrived, 
conveying the sad news of Mrs Smith's 
death. This disease is certainly quick and 
deadly in its efi^ect and creates a panic 
among those who have it, as they die 
frequently in three or four days. My 
chaufi^eur is just recovering. He was so 
scared, two days ago, when I went to see 
him in the hospital, lest he die in France, 
that he was almost speechless. Four friends 
of one of the French officers in my office 
dined together last week, and now two are 
dead and buried. The French seem less 
able to resist it than the Americans. 

This reminds me that the Packard has 
been requisitioned, pursuant to a recent Gen- 
eral Order, requiring the requisition of all 
American privately-owned cars in the A. E. F. 
This is to make the military control of cars 
and use of gasoline more rigid. I had 
what is known as an X number, which 
means a privately-owned automobile in 
military service, and was entitled to use all 
the military gas, oil, tires and service 
needed. I was entitled to appear before the 



118 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



requisition board at Bourges, but was too 
busy to go, so left the price to their discre- 
tion. Their word is final, in any case, and I 
brought the car over for the use of the 
army, never expecting to take it back. I 
have been assigned a new closed five-passen- 
ger Dodge, which is really more practical 
for long winter trips, so do not in the least 
regret the change. 

The ever-constant topic of conversation 
is, of course, the prospects of peace, with all 
of its conditions and ramifications. The 
most superb confidence is felt in the ability 
of Wilson to engineer the situation, and 
handle the complex questions involved. 
Not a single envious breath of criticism 
have I heard.* 

He is the one man on whom rests the 
responsibility of safely piloting the peace 
negotiations and exacting humane terms in 
proportion to the cost of blood and treasure. 
By the millions of soldiers who have sacri- 
ficed their life's blood he is regarded with 
supreme confidence. 

Germany will be in a deplorable condi- 
tion after the war. It is a pity for her that 
they were not content with the rapid com- 
mercial strides they were making, as they 
have lost all and much more. The Allied 
soldiers who have paid so dearly in blood 

•Apparently opinion has changed. 



Orleans, France, 
Oct. i6th, 
1918. 



119 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Oct. i6th, 

1918. 



and hardships will feel they have fought in 
vain if the same terms are not exacted of 
Germany as she offered France in 1914, 
and which would have made her a vassal 
state ! 

Foch, on the other hand, stands supreme, 
as Joffre formerly did, as the undisputed 
military genius of the war. It has been the 
superior ability of the French as strategists 
that has saved them on numerous occasions 
from overwhelming defeat, when outnum- 
bered and almost swamped by the onrushing 
hordes of Germans in their various drives 
on Paris. At the first battle of the Marne 
and Verdun, the German High Command 
was clearly out-generaled, and the saving 
of Paris was called a miracle. 

Nevertheless, after the first battle of the 
Marne over twenty French Generals, who 
were not considered fit for active service, 
were retired. In fact there have been over 
four hundred Limoged* since the beginning 
of the war! Little wonder that those re- 
maining after such a strenuous weeding 
process, and five years of gruelling field 
experience have developed real genii ! 

Your devoted son, 

FERD. 



*So called because the proceedings are held at Limoge. 



120 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



. ... 


^ 



Orleans, France, Oct. 24th, igi8. 

AST evening I had the pleasure 
of dining with Major Frank 
Baker, Q. M. C, brother of the 
Secretary of War. He came 
from Headquarters at Tours especially to 
see me about the requisition of a factory 
needed by the Chief Quartermaster. It 
was a rainy Sunday afternoon, and not 
knowing who it was, I had him shown up 
to my room where we were sitting around a 
little log fire, three of us. We took him 
in the Dodge to the country estate of some 
French friends for tea, with whom he was 
delighted, and upon returning had dinner 
at a most extraordinary little restaurant 
down by the river front, called Auberge 
St. Jacques, where one enters through a 
real horse stable past the horses. It is like 
the unique places one reads about, but never 
sees, and the food is really the best in 
Orleans. A Major Clark, from the Inspec- 
tor General's Department at Chaumont, who 
is here investigating the Liaison Service, 
joined us. He is most high in his praise 
of the Franco-American conditions in this 
Region, and says he has visited no Region 
run so smoothly, without friction, and with 
so little evident effort. 



121 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Oct. 24th, 

J918. 



A description of the Liaison in the Fifth 
Region would be incomplete without men- 
tioning such capable French officers en- 
gaged in this work as Lieutenant Nastrog, 
in charge of the propaganda of "French 
Homes," whose purpose is to introduce 
convalescent Americans to French families, 
and to conduct motor excursions so as to 
familiarize them with some of the historic 
and scenic beauties of France. 

Captain Galezowski of the Service de 
Sante, a well-known Parisian specialist, 
who works with the American Lieutenant 
May, a venerable and loyal American of 
Alsatian birth, speaking French, English 
and German, all with equal fluency and so 
marked an accent that one cannot detect 
which is easier for him to speak, are doing 
most valuable work in hospitalization. 

Lieutenant Geniest of the Genie handles all 
American Requisitions of French property. 

Lieutenant Mossier has been delegated 
by the Ministry of War to our office to 
assist the French end of the U. S. Renting 
Requisition and Claims Service. 

Lieutenant Etienne Jouvencel of the 
Intendance, who is in charge of all Franco- 
American Quartermaster affairs, is a young, 
enthusiastic nobleman with real American 
energy. 



122 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



In addition to the above officers are the 
French Missions attached to the American 
Camps at Gievres, Romarantin, Tonnerre, 
and Ancy-le-Franc. Particularly promi- 
nent among these is Lieutenant Bernard de 
Souches at Romarantin, to whose inde- 
fatigable zeal is due a considerable portion 
of the success in building up this enormous 
aviation construction camp. 

Lieutenant John M. Gundry, Jr., Provost 
Marshal of Orleans, and Lieutenant Henry 
Bahnsen, Intelligence Officer, handle 
Regional Liaison Police and "contre es- 
pionage" matters in connection with Lieu- 
tenant Viguerie. 

The above cosmopolitan officers, all of 
the Americans speaking French and most 
of the French speaking English, who are 
subject to Captain de Waldener's and my 
directions, as heads of the Regional Liaison 
Service, form a congenial little circle of pals, 
who keep things running smoothly and 
handle the multitude of often knotty 
Franco-American questions arising to be 
settled. 

To the Chief-of-Staff, Colonel Delacroix, 
Intendant Militaire Duhamel, and General 
de I'Espee, the greatest appreciation is due 
for their cordial and helpful attitude toward 
Americans. General de I'Espee, whose wife 
is American, devotes the major portion of 



Orleans, France, 
Oct. 24ih, 
1918. 



123 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Oct. 24th, 

1918. 



his time to the cultivation of friendly rela- 
tions and entertainment of American officers. 

As an example of how varied is my work, 
on Saturday afternoon at two o'clock, I 
attended the funeral of a French officer, 
who had died of Spanish flu and pneumo- 
nia, in four days. As one of the pall- 
bearers I walked at one corner of the 
hearse and carried the silver cord attached 
to the mantle covering the casket. We 
walked with the hearse, including the 
family, guard of honor, officers and friends, 
from the military hospital, to the ancient 
Cathedral, where the funeral services were 
held, and from there to the cemetery. 

Upon returning, I stopped at one of the 
large French barracks, Coligny, which we 
are taking over for hospital purposes. As 
usual, wooden barracks are being con- 
structed in the court yard to increase the 
capacity. I had secured two hundred and 
fifty Austrian prisoners of war (P. G.'s as 
they are called — prisonniers de guerre), 
mere boys of sixteen to eighteen years, 
from the French, to aid in the work. They 
are meek looking, undersized little fel- 
lows, apparently completely subdued and 
suffering from homesickness more than 
anything else. One of our men would 
be a match for about three of them, 
and could easily slap him with his open hand 



124 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



and knock him down. One could hardly 
help feeling sorry for them, the victims of a 
crushing, steam-roller military machine. 
They surely showed no signs of malice and 
stood around in a daze like ignorant ani- 
mals, willingly obeying the jovial southern 
negroes bossing the job and reveling in 
whitewash. I gave them several sharp 
commands in German to which they have 
always been accustomed, to cheer and wake 
them up, and make them feel at home, and 
they jumped to attention and huddled like 
frightened sheep. 

When I returned to my office, I found the 
commanding officer of the hospitals and 
several others waiting to see me on various 
subjects and remained until seven o'clock.* 
Sunday I was with Major Baker, and Mon- 
day I made a one hundred and thirty-mile 
motor trip to Montoire accompanied by a 
French officer, where we are constructing 
hospital barracks for twenty thousand beds. 

Tuesday morning, I took the train for 
Paris, to see the Under Secretary of State 
regarding the subject Major Baker wanted 
settled. After wiring a favorable report to 
the Quartermaster General at Tours, I 
stopped at Prunier's for a good fish dinner 
and found the place crowded, with a long 
waiting list for tables. The food is con- 



*The 



I he 



usual nour 



Orleans, France, 
Oct. 24lh, 
1918. 



125 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Oct. 24th, 

J918. 



sidered good and reasonable. The check 
was twenty-one francs, including ten per 
cent taxe-de-luxe and tip, for a dozen 
oysters, whole broiled lobster, slice of roast 
beef and boiled potatoes, with bread but 
no butter. At the Cafe de Paris, Giro's 
or Henri's it would have been twice as much. 

At the Casino de Paris, later, the most 
popular music hall, we succeeded by chance 
in securing two orchestra seats in the 
thirteenth row for fifteen francs each. They 
are sold on the sidewalk by speculators 
for twenty- five francs and the production 
rivaled in gorgeousness the Ziegfeld Follies 
in peace times. The place was packed, the 
aisles filled and standing room banked 
fifteen deep. It is said by those who ought 
to know that France, owing to the money 
poured into the country by the Allied 
armies, has maintained a very considerable 
prosperity. The average French individual 
does not seem to have suffered financially 
enough to have caused him to make 
any considerable outward change in his 
mode of living. 

Already a few brilliant electric street 
lights are burning on some of the boule- 
vards, and the nervous strain of Parisians 
has relaxed. Those with a slight sore throat 
or grippe, however, work up a burning fever 
with hysterical fear of "la grippe espagnole." 



126 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris is a city of fads, many of the 
ribbon strips of paper criss-crossed and 
fantastically pasted on the windows in 
the behef that they would help save the 
glass from breaking from the concussion of 
exploding bombs, still remain. Some enter- 
prising shop keepers in their desire to excel 
their competitors in artistic effects painted 
the strips! 

Peace celebrations are being arranged and 
the Minister of War has ordered "Victory 
Reviews" held in all garrison towns of 
France on November 3rd to boost the 
Fourth Emprunt or Liberty Loan. We have 
already, in America, had as many and as 
large Liberty Loans as France. Within a 
week after peace is signed Paris will be as 
gay as ever, and the year or so following 
will be the biggest tourist years in her 
history. I tried at three hotels before I 
could get a room, the Maurice, Castiglione, 
and Continental. The Castiglione two years 
ago was entirely refurnished, as was also 
the Continental. The artistic effects se- 
cured by the French in remodeling and 
redecorating old buildings are remarkable. 

It is an inspiring sight to see the long 
lines of captured German cannon, hub to 
hub, lining both sides of the Avenue des 
Champs Elysees from Place de la Con- 
corde to the Etoile. They are also packed 



127 



Orleans, France, 
Oct. 24th, 
1918. 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Oct. 24th, 

1918. 



in the Place de la Concorde almost solid, 
all descriptions and kinds, battered, camou- 
flaged and shell-torn. This is the first sign 
of real war I have seen in Paris, and is done 
to help the sale of the Victory Loan. 

Your devoted son, 

FERD. 



128 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Orleans, France, Nov. ist, igi8. 

HE operation of the French law 
of "Requisition," which em- 
'^jMi powers mihtary authorities to 
take any private property 
needed, and which I am frequently required 
to exercise, is most interesting. 

The proprietor is simply served with an 
order to move out. This, however, is done 
according to definite regulations, and the 
compensation is later fixed by a commis- 
sion, consisting of an Engineer Officer, who 
has made blue-prints of the property, two 
officers from the Intendance (Quarter Mas- 
ter's Department) and two competent civil- 
ians chosen by the officers. The decisions 
of this Board are always fair and final, with 
no recourse to the courts. 

"Requisition" is for temporary military 
occupancy, and the property is returned to 
its owner, restored to its original condi- 
tion, when no longer needed. 

This is the only manner in which private 
property can be taken for military pur- 
poses. For the construction of permanent 
public improvements, such as railways, the 
Government has the right to condemn and 
purchase outright. This is called "expro- 
priation," but is more complicated and 



129 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Nov. 1st, 

1918. 



requires a process of law, so is not employed 
for urgent military purposes. 

Affectionately, your devoted son, 

FERD. 



130 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Orleans, France^ Nov. 4th, igi8. 

HEN the time has passed for 
your letters to arrive, I lose en- 
thusiasm in my work, as if some- 
thing were lacking. It is almost 
a subconscious feeling, difficult to define; 
but without the regular approbation of the 
folks at home, the effort all seems so hope- 
less and vague. 

I was feeling lonely when your letters 
arrived this Sunday morning, but my spirits 
have steadily risen all day, in feeling that 
you, although far away, are earnestly inter- 
ested and lovingly awaiting my return. It 
makes the effort worth while. 

The "Victory Day" reviews of troops 
were cancelled by the Ministry of War 
"owing to the Spanish influenza," the real 
diplomatic reason probably being on ac- 
count of the peace pourparlers. 

The luncheon — of which I am enclosing 
an invitation, place card and menu — ^was 
given any way. General de I'Espee said, in 
his after-luncheon toast, which was made 
in both French and English, that it would 
be a calamity to have a premature peace 
before Germany is crushed beyond ever 
regaining her power He said, calmly, but 
with powerful conviction, that after the war 



131 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Nov. 4th, 

igi8. 



of arms, an economic war must be waged, 
and bitter hatred instilled into our children's 
hearts. 

I sat at table with six generals, four French 
and two American, nineteen in all. One of the 
generals pleasantly inquired why I didn't have 
more rank, and I replied that my gold bars 
"must be soldered on." He volunteered to 
take the matter up and see what could be 
done. Nothing has come of my recommen- 
dation for promotion several months ago. 

I have returned from a two-days' trip 
with a French officer, Lieutenant Mossier, 
calling on the Prefer, French Mayors, and 
American Town Majors, advising them 
how civilian claims against the American 
Army, for private property stolen or dam- 
aged, must be handled — not exaggerated, 
and forwarded to the Renting, Requisition 
and Claims Service at Tours. There are R. 
R. & C. officers for this work but I am always 
careful to see that all Franco-American 
business in the Region functions well. 

There are thousands of claims pouring in, 
for every imaginable kind of loss, amount- 
ing to millions of dollars, which means a 
great harvest for the French fortunate 
enough to have had anything damaged by 
the Americans. Claims are frequently based 
on sentimental values, somewhat similar to 
the following: A passing American truck 



132 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



shook out a window pane, which fell and 
cut the dog, which knocked over an antique 
table, originally belonging to the great- 
grandfather, therefore having great histori- 
cal and sentimental value; and, therefore, 
the claim for the broken window pane is one 
hundred francs. One director of a Haras 
(governmental stud stables) had his chil- 
dren's pet white donkey killed by a side- 
car. The donkey had been brought from 
Algiers when small, and raised, so they had 
great affection for it, and it would require 
a thousand francs to soothe their feelings 
and replace the donkey. The director has 
since died, while the claim is awaiting 
adjustment. Claims are also made for 
stolen bottles of beer, or grapes picked from 
vineyards by passing soldiers. 

Nothing is too small to overlook claiming 
for, and exaggerating the amount. I don't 
know if the R. R. & C. officers will ever get 
home after the war. But our liberal pol- 
icy is to pay for anything having the 
slightest indication of justice, in order to 
pecuniarily satisfy and maintain the amia- 
ble feelings of the people for whom our boys 
are ungrudgingly pouring out their life's 
blood and drenching the fields of France. 

Lots of love to you all from your devoted 
son, 

FERD. 



Orleans, France, 

Nov. 4th, 
IQ18. 



133 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Orleans, France, Nov. 14th, igi8. 

EACE has come so unexpectedly 
that those who should know — 
despite the claims to the con- 
trary, of those regularly prog- 
nosticating for the past four years — that we 
are in a daze. 

Events have happened during the past 
week with such lightning-like rapidity, and 
the issues involved are of such magnitude 
that our minds have been in a whirl. It is 
almost too much for our mere human minds 
to comprehend in a few short hours that 
this strain of the past year and a half has 
abruptly snapped. It leaves a blank, vague 
feeling. We devour the one-sheet news- 
papers and telegraphic communiques as if 
in a dream. "There must be a catch some- 
where." This feeling is so strong that there 
is an impulse to go on — on — on ! 

The peace to follow will impose such 
drastic terms the Germans cannot recover 
in generations. Germany is doomed, as 
none can realize without knowing the 
French. 

The armistice was sudden, because those 
here were firmly resolved to continue an- 
other three to six months. Determination 
to go on to complete victory was so strong 



134 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



that Americans, especially, did not permit 
themselves to entertain will-o'-the-wisp 
peace hopes. 

For two days and nights the people and 
soldiers have given themselves up to fren- 
zied celebrations — every one in their mad 
delight trying to outdo the others in casting 
aside the mantle of gloom and depression 
which has so long hung over this depressed 
nation. 

Paris is more crowded and jammed than 
ever. Rooms in hotels, and almost all tables 
in the restaurants, must be engaged days 
in advance. 

Now that the armistice has been signed, 
I can describe some of the activities in the 
Fifth Region. 

At Romarantin is the great aviation con- 
struction camp where all American planes 
are assembled. There are miles of enor- 
mous steel buildings and fifteen thousand 
Americans. 

At Gievres, adjoining, is the Great 
Quartermaster Depot where one thousand 
seven hundred freight cars per day are 
handled in and out. There are over four 
hundred miles of switch tracks, one of the 
largest refrigerating plants in the world, 
where two thousand tons of meat can be 
received and shipped daily, and twenty-five 
thousand Americans are employed. Gievres 



Orleans, France, 
Nov. 14th, 
1918. 



135 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Nov. T4tk, 
IQ18. 



and Romarantin camps occupy a strip of 
land eight by four miles in area, and these 
plants have risen out of the bare farm land 
as if by magic. They are the wonders of 
military France, as are some of our other 
various engineering, dock, railroad, and 
transportation remarkable accomplishments. 

At Montargis was the Headquarters for 
requisitioning the five thousand houses. 

At St. Aignan is the First Replacement 
Depot Division of thirty thousand. 

At Tonnerre and Ancy-le-Franc and 
surrounding towns were two training divi- 
sions. 

At Montoire a twenty thousand-bed 
hospital camp is under construction. 

At Orleans is a three thousand-bed 
hospital. 

Besides four enormous French garrisons 
and the French salvage plants employing 
seven thousand, mostly women, where 
clothing and equipment of every imaginable 
description is received in trainloads from 
the front and remade to look like new. 

At Blois is the Officers' Casual Camp. 

At Seguerny and a half dozen surround- 
ing towns is the First Signal Corps Depot. 

And at twenty-five other places in the 
ten thousand square miles of the Region 
are hospitals, veterinary hospitals, signal 
corps, foresters and detachments of every 



136 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



kind, all of which must be visited in order 
to settle local disputes which have grown 
beyond their ability, experience or authority 
to handle, and in all, amounting to over 
one hundred thousand troops. 

Lots of love to all from 

FERD. 



Orleans, France 

Nov. i<f.th, 
191S. 



137 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Orleans, France, Nov. 26th, igi8. 

HAVE just been playing "Some 
Day Waiting Will Cease," and 
it affects me the same as you. 
Your popular music has arrived 
at a moment most opportune. You scarcely 
can realize what it means to us, the war 
ending as abruptly as it began. Life had 
become bereft of all that was sentimental, 
beautiful and happy, and was one long, 
barren waste of destruction. Now the most 
dazzling sunshine suddenly bursts forth in 
all its resplendent glory, like peace and calm 
after a mighty tempest, which mocks the 
insignificance of puny human strength. 

But the air is not entirely purified. There 
are still distant rumblings of bitterness and 
hate from Germany, who does not will- 
ingly bow to the fact that they are a people 
conquered by force of arms, and who, be- 
cause their military power is crushed, must 
descend from their coveted place in the sun. 
The Allied military leaders harbor no hallu- 
cinations on the subject, and know they are 
dealing with a race which does not hesitate 
to stoop to the lowest treachery. 

The fangs of the beast are pulled, but she 
dies hard, and in her convulsive death-gur- 
gle there are many who believe there will 



138 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



still be fighting. It will mean going in with 
machine guns. The French have been re- 
ceived in Alsace-Lorraine with the wildest 
bursts of enthusiasm, but when it comes to 
occupying Germany itself — and they realize 
they are under the iron heel of which they 
have so prided themselves — it is doubtful 
just how they will act. 

Since the signing of the armistice, two 
weeks ago, the weather has been brilliant, 
as if a sign of approval from the Almighty. 
Paris has burst forth in all her former air of 
gaiety, and never have I seen the boulevards 
so swarming with stylishly dressed, happy, 
beautiful women, like bees from their hives 
after a rain. I didn't know so many 
existed, and fail to comprehend where the 
money comes from. The prices of every- 
thing are double or triple those before the 
war, but that apparently makes no differ- 
ence. I wired two days in advance for 
accommodations at the Hotel Castiglione, 
and tried in the following nine: Maurice, 
Continental, Edward VII, Grand, West- 
minster, Mirabeau, Majestic, Mercedes and 
Crillon, on the Place de la Concorde, where 
I, by chance, thankfully at last secured a 
place to sleep. This hotel has since been 
taken for the American Peace Commission. 
The Elysee Palace has been occupied as 
American army offices for the past year. 



Orleans, France, 
Nov. 26th, 
1918. 



139 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Nov. 26th, 

1918. 



The amount of money spent in France by 
the Alhed armies has made her rich. It is 
the tendency of fighting men to spend lav- 
ishly, and we and our armies have received 
nothing without paying for it dearly. 

The boulevards at night are a blaze of 
light and never have I seen in the theaters, 
which are packed, more gorgeously staged 
productions. Uniforms of French officers 
are conspicuous for their absence as they 
ravenously seize the first opportunity when 
"on leave" to wear civilian clothes. 

"Leaves" for the French have been in- 
creased from one to three weeks in every 
four months, while ours remain, as be- 
fore, one week for the same period, when 
one is fortunate enough to get it. I had 
one week last summer, during the past 
fifteen months, but soon hope to have 
another. There has been a tendency to 
comment on the number of American offi- 
cers on leave in Paris, but the poor devils 
have only public places to go, such as 
hotels, theaters, and boulevards, while the 
Frenchmen are absorbed into their own 
homes all over France. The Englishmen 
return to their homes in England. 

The one thing that seriously lacks is taxi- 
cabs, as the cars are all old and worn out, and 
the cabmen must be paid any price they 
demand regardless of the taximeter rate. 



140 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



You can count on knitted dresses remain- 
ing in style, by the way, for some time to 
come, as most of France's woolen mills 
were in the North and have been destroyed, 
but not the knitting mills. One Rue de la 
Paix modiste received orders for seventy 
evening gowns the first seven days after 
the armistice. 

As for my returning home, it will be as 
sudden as the beginning of the war, sign- 
ing of the armistice, or my departure for 
France. But "Some Day Waiting Will 
Cease" and orders to sail for America, God's 
Country, the "land of the free and the 
home of the brave" will come. 

Lots of love to all, from your devoted son, 

FERD. 



Orleans, France, 
Nov. 26th, 
IQ18. 



141 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Orleans, France, Dec. 4th, igi8. 

OW I do hope Jackie will be home 
for Christmas. Gracious, how 
the time flies! Three weeks, to- 
night, before Christmas! Ac- 
cording to the "Stars and Stripes," "Dad's 
Christmas letter" should have been written 
over a week ago, but as this goes by French 
post,* it will arrive in time. So many things 
come driving into my mind, and so much I 
feel in this lonely garrison town, so far from 
home and all that is dear. Life is so 
changed — a year and a half away from love 
and sympathy and the finer things of life. 
Yesterday, General de I'Espee enter- 
tained Colonel Symmonds, commanding the 
great quartermaster camp at Gievres, which 
will be a model in the future, at a small 
informal luncheon for eight. I attended as 
usual. 

The host always sits at the side of the 
table — not end — and the hostess, when 
there is one, on the opposite side, and if 
there is no hostess, the guest of honor 
occupies her place, and then the other 
guests at the right and left of the host and 
guest of honor, according to their impor- 

*Because attached to the French Army. 



142 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



tance or rank, which is very minutely 
followed. I was at the side of Colonel 
Symmonds, who is a plain, hard-working 
West Pointer, commanding twenty-five 
thousand men at the enormous plant of 
Gievres. I know the Colonel well, having 
frequently messed at his table at luncheon 
on my many trips to Gievres. 

Gievres is forty-five miles from here, by 
motor, through the most famous hunting 
section of France, known as the Sologne. 
It was here that Frangois I, in the fifteenth 
century, built the palace of Chambord, in 
the center of his hunting park, surrounded 
by twenty-eight miles of stone wall. The 
stone walls around these properties were for 
the purpose of keeping the game in. I have 
eaten a lot of partridge this fall. The game 
is carefully guarded, and is not permitted 
to be killed by peasants. 

There are a great many "maisons-de- 
chasse" — hunting lodges — quite pretentious, 
and other "properties" and chateaux in 
this section, and, fortunately I am ac- 
quainted with some of the most prominent, 
including the Capitaine et Baronne Charles 
Pierrebourg, Comtesse de Saint Sauveur, 
Lieut, et Mme. Serge Andre, Lieut. Guy 
Arnoux, the well known illustrator, and 
others, who all have beautiful places and 
with whom I frequently visited during the 



Orleans, France, 
Dec. 4th, 
1918. 



143 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Dec. 4th, 

1918. 



summer. They are most hospitable and 
charming Parisians, although living quietly 
in their country homes during the war. 
French family life usually so difficult for 
foreigners to enter, particularly in the 
country, is delightful. One wealthy widow 
with three daughters-in-law, their children 
and other visiting relatives had a family of 
fifteen children and ten adults regularly at 
table. The chateau was amply large and 
not crowded. 

I couldn't resist taking the delighted 
children — loaded in the car like a jolly 
bouquet — some almost for the first time in 
their young lives, for a little spin on a quiet 
part of the country road.* I suppose this 
was in a way pardonable as I was cultivat- 
ing the entente-cordiale — at least I hope the 
results of my liaison work have justified 
it. My camaraderie and close friendships 
with the French have many times repaid 
the time spent — aside from the charming 
associations. 

To-day there was a Staff after-luncheon 
reception for a French Major who is return- 
ing to Paris to civil life. They are all 
frantic to get back to civil life and produc- 
tive occupations after almost five years lost. 
"Five years older, five years gone out of the 

*Gasoline is unprocurable for pleasure purposes. This is a 
great handicap for people living in the country at some distance 
from the railway station. 



144 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



hearts of our lives," is what one hears on ail 
sides in confidential conversations. 

The women are older, five years of mourn- 
ing and sadness, which everyone bitterly 
regrets and realizes the total loss of 
these never-to-be-recovered years. "All for 
nothing." 

To-morrow General de I'Espee receives at 
luncheon Major-General Wright, command- 
ing the Eighty-first Division billetted at 
Ancy-le-Franc, recently returned from the 
front, at which I shall be present. I am 
accompanied now by my assistant or aide, a 
pleasant young artillery officer of twenty- 
three, from Albany, who fought at St. 
Mihiel, Second Lieutenant John D. W. 
Peltz. He was in the class of 'i8 at Yale 
and his mother was born in France, where 
he has lived. 

We have a cosmopolitan lot in the Liaison 
Service, about eighty officers — no enlisted 
men. They are, roughly, one-third in the 
Regions, one-third with the chief Liaison 
Officer and attached to the French minis- 
terial offices in Paris, and one-third with 
the armies. 

Thanksgiving I spent in Paris, with Cap- 
tain Baron de Waldener, with whom I am 
associated — a charming nobleman of forty- 
two. I dined with the Marquise de Gasket 
and afterwards we went to the Cinema in 



Orleans, France, 
Dec. 4th, 
1918. 



145 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Orleans, France, 

Dec. 4th, 

1918. 



the Champs Elysees and saw Mary Pick- 
ford. All the best movies now are Ameri- 
can, and the French producers think they 
are doing well when they spend thirty or 
forty thousand francs on a film. They say 
American movie actors are better than the 
French, because they are more animated 
and energetic! The Marquise is a hand- 
some, stately widow of thirty-five, whose 
husband was killed two years ago. He was 
a pal of De Waldener. De Waldener is 
of an old Alsatian family, as the name 
implies, and he expects to soon return to 
buy back some of their properties which 
were disposed of to the Germans in '71. 

After the Cinema, we went to a dance 
given by the Henri Hottinguers, for their 
debutante daughter, in Rue de la Baume. 
Mme. de Waldener is his sister, and they 
are said to be the richest protestant family 
in France.* The house is a palace and 
two hundred danced on the ground floor. 

Among others present were Ambassador 
Sharpe's daughter, the daughters of Prin- 
cess Murat, Mile. Hottinguer — who has a 
dot of half a million francs' income — and 
Mile, de FEspee. She was accompanied 
by her mother, as many were. There are 
many important dances to follow, to which 
I received verbal invitations. American 



*M. Hottinguer is at the head of the Bank of France. 



146 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



officers, for whom the dance was said to be 
given, were in the predominance, as the 
young French officers have not yet returned 
from the front. According to French cus- 
tom, one calls and leaves cards for all 
ladies to whom he is presented. In prepar- 
ing her dinner and dance lists, the hostess 
is then free to invite whom she pleases. 

My prayers and thoughts are always with 
you, and I hope to return before spring, 
some fine day when you least expect it. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New 
Year, and much love to you all from, 

Devotedly your son and brother, 

FERD. 



Orleans, France, 
Dec. 4th, 
1918. 



147 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




U. S. Officers' Combat Replacement 
Depot 

Gondrecourt {Meuse), Dec. 24th, igi8. 

FTER receiving orders relieving 
me from further duty at Or- 
leans for return to the U. S. 
it took two days to make the 
official round of formal "au revoir" calls. 
Colonel Delacroix. Chief of Staff, gave a 
small informal farewell luncheon for eight in 
my honor, and there was much good fellow- 
ship and many compliments exchanged. 

This is Christmas Eve, and my mind is 
thousands of miles from here. It is six 
o'clock, and the officers, coming from sup- 
per, are drifting into the officers' Y. M. C. 
A. club barracks, dripping with rain, and 
flecked with snow — the first of the season. 
It has been dark since four o'clock, and 
supper is served at five-thirty. By seven 
o'clock it has been dark for hours, and one 
can truthfully refer to the "long winter 
evenings." 

The camaraderie existing in the army is 
magnificent, and is the great compensation 
for the separation from home and God's 
country. The realization of this has been 
more forcibly impressed upon me during 



148 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



the past three days, since returning to the 
American troops, after passing eight months 
with the French Army. 

On these bleak, cold, wind and rain- 
swept hills, past which so recently swept 
one of the greatest and bloodiest holocausts 
in history, is established in heart and soul a 
miniature America — an independent Ameri- 
can barrack city — far removed from Euro- 
pean thought, ideas and influences. 

The average American soldier has little 
opportunity for seeing or knowing anything 
about the French, except for slight contact 
with the peasants. This is because when 
he is not on the battle field he is billetted in 
the miserable peasant villages behind the 
lines, and rarely has **leave'* to travel. 

I have been released from further service 
with the Chief Liaison Ofl^icer, for return 
to the U. S., as my work is finished, and I 
am deeply touched at this sacred time by 
being back among my own people. It 
again gives me a chance to know and 
fraternize with these whole-hearted Amer- 
ican characters, honest, magnificent man- 
hood. This Army represents the purest 
and finest we possess in the American 
nation ! 

While returning thru Paris the other 
day, I saw Wilson, Pershing and Bliss pass 
on their return from the formal reception 



GondrecouTt 
(Meuse), 
Dec. 24th, 
1918. 



149 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Gondrecourt 

{Meuse), 

Dec. 24th, 

1918. 



given in Wilson's honor by the City of 
Paris at the Hotel de Ville. The boule- 
vards were lined with French troops and 
cavalry to hold the crowds back and 
render the guests royal military honors. 
Wilson has a grace in lifting his hat which 
no imperial ruler can equal. His famous 
smile and polished manner immediately 
endeared him to the French of all classes, 
who call him Emperor. How they love 
holidays and fetes! In nine days there 
were six national holidays, four for visiting 
Allied royalty, including Wilson, and two 
Sundays. 

Several days later, upon the arrival of 
the King of Italy, shortly before the hour, 
all the side streets leading to the boule- 
vards were black with tens of thousands 
scurrying in the rain to see him pass. 

The barrack is now a mass of officers 
talking, reading and writing, like a college 
dormitory, with some one drumming the 
piano at one end and the victrola going at 
the other. The canteen has been opened, 
and they are waiting in line and crowding 
around, drinking hot chocolate. Is a sol- 
dier's stomach ever filled ? 

Stoessel* has commenced playing, which 
recalls with a thrill that it is Christmas Eve. 
The barrack is in enraptured stillness — no 

*0f the Boston Symphony. 



150 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



other indication of the birth of Christ, ex- 
cept a small tree — but one reaHzes the 
sacredness of this night in this weird, out-of- 
the-way place of the world more than in 
the turmoil of a great city. 

Your devoted son, 

FERD. 



GondrecouTt 
{Meuse), 
Dec. 24th, 
1918. 



151 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Nice, France, Jan. ^th, IQIQ. 

ERE I am, on a week's leave, in 
the hospital with a slight case 
of the mumps. Just arrived, with 
the prospect of passing ten days. 

Things happen so rapidly and unex- 
pectedly in the army that I never attempt 
to forecast the future, as all goes by op- 
posites. Little did I expect to be a patient 
in a French Military Hospital, although I 
have visited many where our men were left 
in a dying condition by passing American 
hospital trains. 

The last week at Orleans, I completed a 
three hundred and fifty-mile tour of inspec- 
tion, including French hospitals, by auto. 
Our men were lonely, as might be expected, 
and condemn the hospitals as dirty and 
unsanitary. The French haven't the money 
to do things in the lavish American manner, 
and the doctors are tired after five years of 
incessant grind. It is the doctors who 
have done the most tedious work, and that 
of the French doctors has been monumental ! 
One can comprehend only in a vague way 
what the hospitalization for an army of 
four millions* means, unless he has ac- 
tually seen. French trained nurses are not 

*French Army. 



152 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



as high a class of women as nurses in 
America, and are not as well respected. 
However, there are usually a few local 
ladies nursing in the Benevole or Charity 
Red Cross Hospitals, and one can invariably 
distinguish them. 

It is like a breath of fresh air to meet and 
talk with these cheerful, charming, serious- 
minded girls, doing a work of mercy. It is 
not a fad or fancy, but after all these years 
of suffering they take it as naturally as if it 
were all that is to be expected in life. They 
have usually lost some one of their imme- 
diate family — brother or fiance. It has 
been the old, retired and rich families living 
on their "rentes*' which have lost most by 
the war. Their fortunes have been ma- 
terially reduced, while the high cost of liv- 
ing has doubled and tripled. It has been 
the storekeepers and working classes who 
have profited by greatly increased wages 
and increased business. Soldiers certainly 
spend money like the proverbial **drunken 
sailor." 

Prices of rooms and meals are posted 
in all hotels and restaurants, as required 
by law, to prevent extortion, as sentiment 
has not stood in the way of avaricious 
tradespeople exploiting American generos- 
ity — especially in regions not suffering from 
the invader. I regret to say that the aver- 



Nice, France, 
Jan. 5th, 
1919. 



153 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Nice, France, 

Jan. 5th, 

1919. 



age American, for this and sundry other rea- 
sons, has not a high opinion of the French, 
and their one desire is to finish the job and 
return home. The French Government, on 
the other hand, has carried on a well-organ- 
ized propaganda, called "French Homes," 
to systematically introduce Americans into 
French families. About ten thousand 
French girls are said to have married 
Americans. 

It seems that Europe is determined to 
maintain the same standard of living as be- 
fore the war, despite the doubled cost, and 
the bulk of the men having earned nothing 
for so long. The idea seems to be to spend 
money as long as it lasts. 

This contagious hospital is a lonely place, 
an amusement ice-skating palace in a 
beautiful park in the suburbs of Nice, 
partitioned into small rooms called "boxes," 
without ceilings. All that is separating me 
from the spinal-meningitis on one side and 
a case of diphtheria on the other are light 
seven-foot pine partitions! 

I have a Brazilian army doctor; there 
were three hundred of them sent over for 
service with the French Army. Evidently 
the love and sympathy of the entire world 
went forth to aid stricken France in her 
dire distress. 



154 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Next Day — ^Tuesday. Well, the novel 
experiences of a soldier are many. I had 
to jump out of the bed and pull it across 
the concrete floor out of the heavy shower 
that leaked through the roof during a 
torrential rain. Luckily I wasn't very sick 
or minus a leg. My nurse has only four- 
teen patients ; formerly she had thirty-four ! 

Major Willard D. Straight, my former 
beloved chief in the War Risk Bureau, has 
died of pneumonia. He had a brilliant 
career for a man of forty. 

The number of people who have died, 
owing to overwork and reduced powers of 
resistance and a treacherous climate, is 
shocking. I really never realized what a 
damnable climate this is. Half the bat- 
tle country is under water from almost 
incessant rains during the past four months. 
The clouds raised for only a week when 
the armistice was signed, as if a Divine 
token of approval from the Almighty. 

At last the warm, balmy and caressing 
sunshine of beautiful Nice makes the con- 
valescents want to bask forever and look 
out on the clear blue Mediterranean and 
wonder what it all means ! 

Lots of love to you all, from 

FERD. 



Nice, France, 
Jan. 5th, 
1919. 



155 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Paris, France, Jan. 20th, I gig. 

FIND that some of the French 
customs are quaint and cer- 
tainly opposite to our own, 
for example : 

It is not "etiquette" to wait until all at 
table are served before one starts eating, 
each commencing as soon as he is served, 
thereby avoiding an awkward pause. If 
one is timid about this he is apt to delay 
the service or go hungry, for the plates are 
removed rapidly as the courses are finished, 
which makes the service almost continuous 
and certainly quicker and more satisfactory, 
especially when the meal is divided into 
many courses, as is customary. 

Forks are always placed with the prongs 
pointing down, and knives and forks are 
criss-crossed on the plate — prongs down! 

Neatly written menus are placed on the 
table in private homes, at formal luncheons 
or dinners and frequently informal ones, 
and are carefully read by the guests, — 
evidencing a polite interest on their part. 

The above usages appear unimportant, 
but are equally as rigid as our own, and 
their infraction regarded equally as ill-bred. 

Even in the best homes, fruit such as 
large apples and pears, is generally cut in 



156 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



half before being "passed," which is surely 
more practicable than our own extravagant 
method. 

Coffee with hot milk is served in the 
morning in a large bowl, similar to a porridge 
bowl, using a table-spoon instead of a tea- 
spoon. 

In the Bordeaux district, the ancient 
peasant custom was to drink white wine 
for breakfast instead of coffee as it is the 
product of the country, and naturally more 
easily obtainable and cheaper. 

One not desiring coffee after a meal is at 
liberty to ask for a cup of tilleul, a fashion- 
able and mild hot beverage slightly digestive 
and laxative in effect. This is a tea and is 
made from dried linden blossoms; it also 
acts as a sedative inducing sleep and is 
altogether a very pleasing beverage, taken 
after dinner. 

The French always sleep with the win- 
dows, iron shutters, and draperies tightly 
closed even in the Summer, owing to their 
abject fear of night air. The American 
method of sleeping with outside ventilation 
is regarded as suicidal, and when the maid 
enters one's room in the morning in private 
homes and finds the windows open, it is 
usually the cause of ejaculations and aston- 
ishment, and kind advice that one must not do 
it. Their increased health since sleeping in 



Paris, France, 
Jan. 20th, 
1919. 



157 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Paris, France, 

Jan. 20th, 

1910. 



the trenches does not seem to have altered 
their views on ventilation. 

A young U. S. Army engineer who as 
a civilian had worked on the ventilation 
problem of the New York subway, said: 
''I expected, when I came to France, I 
might get some new ideas on street car 
ventilation, but found they had solved 
the problem simply by shutting the cars up 
tight and having none!" 

While talking with a Baroness and 
Countess, I received some startling infor- 
mation on "marriage contracts." It ap- 
pears there are two laws under which the 
marriage contract, which is obligatory, can 
be drawn. The old law provides for the 
wife's dowry becoming the property out- 
right of her husband on the wedding day, 
and the other for her to retain an interest! 
One of these beautiful heiresses, who had 
married a poor nobleman, told me that she 
would have regarded it as an insult to her 
husband if she had married him under any 
but the old law! The other, who had mar- 
ried a poor nobleman, said : "I brought my 
husband a yearly income of fifty thousand 
francs under the old law, from which he 
gave me one hundred francs per month 
spending money, and I was content!'* 
These were both clever, charming women 
from the rich bourgeoisie class who had 



158 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



married titles. These are not isolated 
cases. 

There is another law for tradespeople, 
under which the husband and wife can 
become legal business partners, sharing 
the profits like any two partners owning a 
joint interest. 

Ordinarily the interest from a girl's 
dowry is supposed to equal about one- 
fifth of her husband's earning power. And 
girls very rarely can get married without a 
dowry, even among the poorest classes, 
who formerly frequently dispensed with a 
ceremony owing to the complicated pro- 
cedure, legal formality and attendant cost. 
The laws have fortunately recently been 
modified somewhat in this respect. 

Dowries are small formalities which 
were dispensed with by our American boys 
when bringing home French brides! 

After they become twenty-five, the girls 
"marry Ste. Catherine," and Ste. Catherine's 
Day (April 30th) is a festive occasion 
when the shop girls wear flowers, fancy 
hats and ribbons and have a jolly time all 
day in the streets according to French 
fashion. 

As ever your son, 

FERD. 



Parts, France, 
Jan. 20th, 



159 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




Gondrecourt, France, Jan. S^th, IQIQ. 

HE bottom has dropped out and 

everybody is clamoring to get 

home. There was a scramble 

to get on the Peace Commission, 

but this has died down. 

It is sad to see the machinery of the 
Liaison Service, about which we were all so 
enthusiastic during the exciting times of last 
summer, disintegrating and going to pieces. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Harjes who has gone 
to Monte Carlo with his family, has never 
returned to the office since the motor ac- 
cident of last August when his hip was 
broken, but has continued to direct the 
Service thru Captain Phil Livermore, 
Deputy Chief Liaison Officer. 

With a slight stretch of the imagination, 
one could believe this a stag winter country- 
house party, or Muldoon's family training 
camp for obese gentlemen; only these are 
young and brimming with the effervescent 
spirits of health and youth, and already 
"fit." 

After an easy day of several lectures on 
military subjects, and a long hike over hard, 
frozen country roads, and five-thirty o'clock 
supper, they lounge, read, talk and smoke 
until an early bed-hour. 



160 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



There is plenty of amateur musical talent 
and movies. An officer at present is play- 
ing the piano, surrounded by an admiring 
group, among whom are several good voices. 

This is almost an Elysian picture, but 
when you get this many American youths 
together, no matter in what remote part of 
the world, their indomitable Americanism 
is bound to come to the surface. All fret 
and are anxious to return to their organiza- 
tions, most of which are in Germany, and 
also have a vague, dim longing to return 
home. But this is suppressed, largely for 
the practical reason that they will have to 
seek work when they leave the army. 
Many feel, now that the arduous fight- 
ing period has passed, like enjoying a 
well-earned respite; however, a profound 
yearning for home secretly exists deep in 
every heart. 

As the evening's movies in the "Audi- 
torium," or adjoining barracks, were just 
announced, and there was a concerted 
movement in that direction, including the 
ragtime officer at the piano, his place was 
taken by one more sentimentally inclined, 
who is exquisitely playing "The End of a 
Perfect Day." Now, half an hour later, the 
movie crowd is back again in full possession 
of the piano. While serious-minded, they 
are with their pent-up dynamic force like a 



Gondrecourt, 
France, 
Jan. 30th, 
1919. 



161 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Gondrecourt, 

France, 

Jan. 30th, 

1919. 



pack of eager young hounds. These are 
some of the men who from quiet civiHan 
Hfe, with little military training, were 
thrown in at Chateau-Thierry, with orders 
to stop, regardless of sacrifice of life — which 
the French had learned to so carefully 
preserve — the ferocious drive which the 
Germans had intended should end the war 
by crushing France. 

As ever your son, 

FERD. 



162 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



4 







Nancy f France^ Feb. ^th, JgiQ. 

IMPROVED the opportunity 
to come via Nancy, which is on 
the Alsatian frontier, and was 
astonished to find a large, 
flourishing city, with more happy faces 
than I have seen previously. It appears 
more German than French, and the peo- 
ple have such round, pleasant German 
faces that one is startled when they speak 
French. 

It isn't correct to say they are German, 
nor French, for they are Alsatian. In 
the newer sections, the houses are mod- 
ern German in architecture. There is a 
marked difference between this hybrid city 
and the old French town of Orleans, where 
French is found in its purest. 

One wonders why Rheims was pulverized 
and this large city at the front remains al- 
most untouched. There were dozens of 
houses blown up by aerial bombs, but the 
city is still intact. The simple reason is 
that it was regarded as future German prop- 
erty, and was, therefore, spared the fate of 
others less fortunate. The public markets 
were filled with good food, at high prices, 
but not higher than at home. The finest 
frozen beef was shown, so marked, for 



163 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Nancy, France, 

Feb. 5th, 

1919. 



previous to the war frozen meat had no 
market in France, and there were poor re- 
frigerating facihties, and almost no refrig- 
erator cars. Each city has its own slaughter 
plants. However, the French have over- 
come their prejudice, and learned to appre- 
ciate American frozen beef. 

Ch§,teau-Thierry, Epernay, Bar-le-Duc, 
and all the others of dozens of destroyed 
towns one passes in the Marne Valley are 
desolate looking shell-torn sights. There 
is nothing interesting except to satisfy a 
morbid curiosity in seeing the mangled 
remains of these once pleasant villages. 
At Chateau-Thierry the thrifty tradespeople 
are already beginning to prepare, in a feeble 
way, for tourists who are commencing to 
come in the shape of a few Americans 
"on leave." 

Michelin is publishing elaborate guide- 
books on the entire battle country, which 
are standard and will supersede the Ger- 
man Baedeker. 

There are over one million eight hundred 
thousand applications on file at Washington 
for tourist passports, just think of it! 

Lots of love, from 

FERD. 



164 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 




U. S. Casual Officers' Camp 

Angers, France, Feb. loth, IQIQ. 

ERE I am, finally en route to 
America, and to-morrow leave 
for Bordeaux. 

I am fortunate in being quar- 
tered in the new French artillery barracks, 
called the "Caserne Languoise." However, 
there are as yet no modern conveniences, 
such as electric lights and running water, 
and I am writing by the light of a candle. 
It is bitterly cold — five degrees above zero 
Fahrenheit — to wash out-of-doors in a gale. 
Angers is a most interesting old city of 
eighty thousand, on the Loire, and was a 
most pleasant surprise in this respect, as 
one hears so little of it. The Loire Valley 
was the historical medieval center of France. 
Orleans, Tours, Blois, Angers, and Nantes 
are all on this most picturesque of rivers, 
which was first occupied by the Romans, 
and since has played so important a part in 
French history. 

Several of my French friends have raised 
such a friendly protest at my returning to 
America so soon that I was compelled to 
say that it was only in order to be de- 
mobilized and that I would return in the 



165 



LETTERS FROM A LIAISON OFFICER 



Angers, France, 

Feb. loth, 

1919. 



spring! It is with a certain keen regret 
that I am leaving France and these hos- 
pitable friends, and the stirring scenes that 
have become so indelibly woven into these 
never-to-be-forgotten years, which have 
for all of us, to a greater or less degree, left 
their imprints on our characters and lives. 
However, you hwzv I am at the same 
time fervently hoping to again be with you 
and at home almost as soon as this letter 
arrives, and am, as ever, 

Your devoted son, 

FERD. 



166 



This copy of "Letters from a Liaison 
Officer" is one of a private edition of four 
hundred copies, hand bound, designed and 
printed at the press of George F. McKiernan 
& Company, in Chicago, in the fifth month, 
MCMXIX. 



li 8 











1** -^^iw- \ 



/.C^^% 







«i» .'€'^''4 , •* "<^ "rHflR*^* ^ ^ .^^^^4 ^ •* •<?' 












*-^** '^- ^^-/ -A'". ''"-^*' 





;*l Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proces 



s^^^Jtar ♦ fc/" ^ *^''»^^^«* »^ ^** *»^^22*^* p Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxid( 

*.,,•* A*?- O, ** -TT' .0-' ^^ •■ . , 1 • * ^^"^ Treatment Date: |^;>Y 20D 




'^^ -fc'^ *>J^ PreservationTechnologie 






^ ^. - 




'bV 
































. . . , 0^ 

0^ . 



•^0^ 



V- o *.,o' ,0-' V ""-' ^ %. 








V'O' 



♦ .N* 



r^ 




'oK 





. .'^ 



^^^. 



BOOKBINDING ■ <*^ 4? |. * 












^^^C^ 



* «9 



